Lyric
by LyricaBelachium
Summary: Prowl and Jazz often come to visit a young human without letting her know. What could be interesting them so much in the young human? ProwlxJazz fic, oc input, AU.
1. Stalking

It was a cloudy and solemnly gray day, the heat of the summer was still there but the cold wind would often remind him of the incoming threat of rain.

The streets were calm, as they usually were every morning in that district; it was after all a good neighborhood, peaceful, rarely ever reporting a serious disturbance, other than the occasional stray dog picking a fight with an owner's dog, or children playing where they shouldn't, namely their neighbor's yards.

Prowl shifted on his tires, wishing he could just transform and stretch for a few minutes, but for that he would have to back away a long way so no one would see him, and he was determined not to lose a single moment parked in that street.

Not that staying parked all morning was particularly interesting, he would much rather have stayed in his office working, or making sure nothing drastic like a twins prank happened during the night.  
>But there was a much higher interest that kept the police car where he was stationed at.<p>

"Yer joints clogged up yet Prowler?" The police car didn't even shift in surprise upon the voice, he knew he'd be coming sooner or later. He watched as the Porsche drove over and parked behind him, slightly nudging his bumper with his front.

The police car bristled sharply, sending his bonded a scolding feeling, as if he were treating a child.  
>"Hardly. I merely dislike not being able to take any action." He paused, letting a bit of silence settle between them.<p>

"She didn't see ya yet did she?" Jazz inquired, sounding a bit weary. "Ya know she's growin suspicious with ya hangin' around." 

"I still fail to see how she managed to notice me and not you, considering you chose a much flashier alt form." Prowl said bitterly, sinking further on his tires.

"Easy" Jazz answered promptly "Lots o'fancy cars on this neighborhood."

"That still does not justify her suspicion; there are many patrol cars that pass by everyday here. Their numbers are even higher than that of a Porsche."

Jazz would have rolled his optics if he could, Prowl would never get it. Sure it was true what he said, but patrol cars didn't simply park on a street for hours ominously without a driver in sight. They would pass by yes, park when something happened, but never stay there as long as Prowl usually did. Plus she had taken notice of his licensing plate as well, which meant she knew it was always the same.

"So how's the lil' lady doin' this mornin'?"

"Still hasn't woken up, shouldn't take much longer however, the alarm clock is set to ring in a few minutes" The Tactitian answered, shifting his sensors back to the house he had been watching intently, at the end of the street.

"Betcha she's gonna fall off startled again." Jazz teased, moving his sensors to the same spot.

"I sincerely hope not, last time the lamp hit her head so hard I was afraid she might have suffered serious brain damage." Jazz only snickered at that comment. 

"Reminds me o'someone ah know." He said with a pretend to be innocent tone, only to receive himself an undignified huff from the other.

The two went quiet for a few minutes when they heard someone get out of one of the houses near them, walking out with a dog and down the street towards the community gardens, scratching his boxers as he did so and giving the two cybertronians in disguise the shivers.

They were brought back to attention though when their scans picked up on the alarm clock ringing in their targeted house.

A young human girl inside, about the age of seventeen yawned, stretching and blindly searching for the alarm clock to turn it off.

The mechs chuckled lightly as she failed to find it for a good number of tries before outright slamming everything on the bedside table and throwing it to the floor, successfully silencing her nemisis.

After a few minutes it was her cell phone alarm clock that began to ring, managing to get a groan out of the girl who rolled out of the bed and blindly searched for said device to shut it off.

By the time she found it however she was too awake to go back to bed it seemed as she just threw it back to the bed and walked out towards the bathroom, likely for a shower. By which point both mechs shut off their scanners respectfully and waited.

"It's been a while since we las' came ta visit, ya notice anythin' changin'?" Jazz put in, as usual uncomfortable with the silence.

"The usual, she seems to be fairing well. There seems to not have been any Decepticon activity either, so she's still safe."

Again Jazz felt the urge to roll his optics. "Ya know what ah meant prowler! The juicy stuff! She get a date yet? Found any papers with her grades scatterin' around?" the saboteur asked eagerly.

"No, and yes, there were a few test papers in their usual shelf, from what little I could see she seems to be keeping up with her grades, nothing brilliant but fairly good." 

"Good girl" Jazz said, mentally nodding "and…?"

"No signs of relationships other than her familial units."

Jazz sagged at that.

"Ya sure?"

"Quite sure. More than ever it seems like she's closing herself in her room for as long as possible. I could see signs of her living there."

"Signs as in, food plates all over the place and soda can's litterin' the table?" Jazz asked, receiving an affirmative feeling from Prowl. "Dang, why'd she have ta be anti so anti social?" he said, mentally pouting.

"I… it's my fault…I sho-"

"Now don't start with that again Prowler, we both know it's no one's fault." Jazz scolded, bumping his mate again on the rear of his alt form.

The tactician didn't oppose, though he certainly felt it, Jazz intruded into their bond for that same reason, sending feelings of comfort and enveloping his park with his essence.

"The creep didn't show anymore did he?" Jazz asked after a while, a slight frown on his face. 

"It's hard to tell, but I believe he hasn't. It doesn't seem to have affected her by much however; if anything she seems relieved to no longer be in that relationship."

"Good" Jazz huffed "I might of just interfered if he came close again!"

"You know we can't do that, it would have ended all that we worked for all these years."

"Ah know, ah know, but ah would rather do it than let'im near my lil' girl again." The saboteur grumbled, sinking in his tires as well.

"Jazz…" the tatitian said tiredly. "She can't know, we promised. It's for the better."

The saboteur's mood only seemed to sink further at that.

"Ain't fair ah tell ya. Ah would have rather dealt with it than ta let those two excuses for parental units take care o'her."

Prowl sighed at that, looking up at the window again for a brief moment and noting that the window had been opened whilst they were conversing.  
>"It's safe to watch again." He informed the other, his scanners coming online again and revealing him the half messy half tidy room of the young human.<p>

It was messy because of all the food plates and soda cans littered around, along with a few other objects here and there, fallen over the floor, namely drawings she had been working on. And at the same time it was tidy because, everything she was not working on had its own place and was neatly arranged there. The girl had a tendency to make a mess of everything and then tidy up like a maniac at the end of the day.

Currently she was sitting at her desk with a bowl of milk and cereal, reading something on her computer.

"Ah, she's back ta her desk, goodie, wan me ta share the video feed?" Jazz asked.

Prowl was not surprised by the question, the clever saboteur had hacked into the human's computer many times before so that he could access the camera and the microphone. They felt a little guilty for spying so thoroughly on the girl, but it simply couldn't be helped, it was as close as they could allow themselves to get.

"If you don't mind." Prowl agreed, waiting for the communication to be set up.

In his internal hud he soon saw the figure of the girl as if he were standing in front of her, it was a strange thing to be able to see so close, but appreciated.

He took in her appearance with care, her long dark brown hair was a bit messy from having woken up not too long ago, and as usual she hadn't bothered to brush it. The red streaks of hair at the front were starting to loose color as the hair had grown even farther than it already was.

The tan skin had gotten a bit more pale, likely the result of staying indoors as long as she did, and her eyes had feint signs of lack of sleep, their blue only shinning because of the screen's light.

"Definitely hasn't come out lately" Jazz stated "hasn't painted her cute lil' chevron lately." He snickered when prowl stiffened a little at that comment.

"It is not a chevron, a lot of girls her age enjoy painting their hair, and it is merely coincidence that she decided to paint hers in red." Prowl justified, straightening in his place.

"Sure Prowler, sure" Jazz teased.  
>They watched in silence for a good while, though the girl barely ever spoke, as her words were more often than not written on her computer rather than spoken with her family.<p>

After about an hour she leaned away from the desk, sighing and rubbing her eyes, looking idly toward the window with her usual blank expression until it settled into a frown.  
>"Oh slag, c'mon Prowler, time ta disappear" Jazz said quickly cutting off the connection to the computer. The two quickly backing out of their parking spaces and to the other side of the street, turning around the corner.<p>

Right when Prowl was about to get out of sight he saw the young girl standing at her window, glaring down the street to where they had been at.

The next moment he didn't see her anymore, it was time to go, before they rose too much suspicion.


	2. Kitty

Jessie glared out the window until she was sure the suspicious cop car was out of sigh5, once again he had eluded her. He had been following her around for months, as far as she knew, because at least she only noticed him then.

It was a strange thing, usually patrol cars were…well, on patrol, not parked all the time where ever you found yourself at, especially when you went out of town on camping trips and the like.

She was beginning to consider going to the police station and enquiring them about it.

But not he was gone, as usual, she might as well get herself ready, her bag was neatly packed already.

Quickly tying her hair in a long pony tail behind her she grabbed the bag and silently crept out of the house. Everyone was still asleep; it was seven AM after all.

As soon as she reached the street she began to pick up pace, going up towards the high way crossing. It was so quiet she didn't even see any cars, despite how foggy that morning was, the sounds were enough indication that there weren't any.

Considering it safe to cross, she stepped forwards.

* * *

><p>Jazz whined, leading the cop car away, that hadn't been any time at all! The girl was getting good at knowing when they were present.<br>"Jazz turn on your holoform" Prowl advised, coming behind him just as sour.

"Why bother? No one's up at this hour" the saboteur complained. "It's bad enough we have ta come the long way aroun'"

"It can't be helped when we have to escape through that route." Prowl reminded him patiently "Now please, the holoform."

"Ah know, ah know…" Jazz grumbled, turning it on.

The problem about that route was that it gave a complicated turn all around the block ONLY to return to the street they could have taken anyway if they were allowed to go the other direction to begin with.

"And keep an optic out for this fog, we wouldn't want to have an accident." Prowl warned.  
>Jazz was about to complain for being scolded so constantly when a figure caught him by surprise jumping right in front of him.<p>

He barely had time to hit the brakes, his tires squealing loudly. He only just made it, his holoform performing the correct actions accompanying him and then looking up at the human that had recklessly jumped into the highway. His spark nearly sank as he saw the long haired girl they had been spying on not too long ago.  
>She stood frozen in front of him, like a deer caught in headlights. And to <em>THINK<em> she could have been crushed under his weight if he had stepped only a second later.

'Jazz? What's the matter? Did you hit something?' Prowl questioned through their bond, snapping the saboteur out of his shock, he could hear his holoform opening the car door behind him and walking out.  
>"Is everything all right there?" his smooth voice called out, stepping to the side of Jazz's alt.<p>

The girl seemed to snap out of it as well upon hearing him.  
>"I-I- I'm sorry! I didn't hear any cars going by!" She said hurriedly upon seeing the police officer walk out of the fog. Prowl stopped in his tracks once he had a clear view of her as well. Though he was much faster to recompose himself compared to Jazz.<br>"You need to be more careful young lady" he said, trying to sound as real to his officer role as he could, and the turning to Jazz holoform. "And you sir need to turn on your headlights when driving in the fog."  
>"R-right.."Jazz holoform spoke poking his head out of the window "Sorry about tha' lil' missy! I didn't see ya there, car's real quiet."<p>

' I could have killed her!' he said distressedly to Prowl through their bond.

'I know, calm down, it didn't happen.' The other tried to soothe.

' I could have KILLED her!' the saboteur insisted.  
>"Make sure you're more careful from now on when you cross the street" Prowl said to the girl, only for her to nod and to cross the rest of the crossing.<p>

They watched her as she disappeared again in the fog, sighing only when they thought it was safe to.  
>"That was close." The police officer said.<br>"Too close…Primus…" his mate agreed still distressed by the whole situation.  
>"I wonder though…what has brought her out of her home this early"<p>

Jazz tensed as he realized this as well, it was usual for the girl to get out of home, much less this early.

"Ya wanna make sure she dun get in trouble?" Jazz suggested, anxious for a positive response, it really had been very little time that morning, and they hadn't come visit in quite a few weeks.  
>"Just to make sure" Prowl agreed, his holoform flickering out of sight and reappearing again inside him, closing his door.<p>

* * *

><p>Jessie hurried even more after the ordeal at the crossing, a cop was no good, she had better hurry and lose sight of him.<p>

She stopped at a corner, looking back wearily. No signs of life, that was good. She turned to the gridded wall next to her and around the corner, next to tree.

Once again looking around wearily she started climbing it, reaching its branches and climbing over the gridded fence. From there she jumped, falling on a pile of old tires with a loud "oof!"

She shuffled out of the pile a second later, running off further into the car graveyard she had just entered.

A moment later Jazz and Prowl passed by, missing her by mere seconds.

Jessie wondered around the graveyard with morbid fascination, not that it was like a human graveyard sure, but there was just something about the idea of graveyards in general that always gave that feeling.

Soon her objective came into view, a small space between a pile of crumbled cars.  
>"I'm here!" she announced, leaning down and crawling inside the hole. It was a bit of a tight fit with the backpack on but she managed. She was greeted by a tail as she reached the interior, where the piles made an almost igloo like shelter. She chuckled as the tail played with her, though it made of metal, the creature was gentle enough not to hurt her with it.<br>"Missed me huh?" she was looking to what seemed like a big cat, only it was a metallic one, or a robot if you'd rather. Dark in color with red glass lights for eyes. It purred, rubbing its harsh body against her lightly.

"Yep, you did didn't ya?" she fondled its head affectionately, letting the large robot cat get comfortable next to her.

"I've brought you something" she said turning around and putting her back pack down.

The creature watched her curiously. "I'm not entirely sure if you can eat or drink this, but it was the best I could find." She said pulling out a container of oil. The large metallic cat sniffed it, then purred, pawing at it. "Ah, so I was right. Hold on then." She then took a plastic container out of the bag and set it down on the floor "I'll pour it for ya."

She watched quietly as it started drinking the liquid hungrily, devouring it until there was no drop left.

"You're quite adorable for a cat your size…and of your uh… constitution." She chuckled a bit at her own choice of words.

* * *

><p>Jazz agitation had only been growing ever since he nearly ran over the girl, he was darting scanners back and forth, into houses, into shops, nothing. It was starting to pass down to Prowl's side of the bond making him weary as well.<p>

"Where IS she? How could she possibly get outta our range so easily?" Jazz gripped.

"We should turn around, recheck where we've passed through, we might have missed something "Prowl suggested.  
>"Or we could just online that fraggin' tracker!" Jazz said irritably.<br>"That is only for emergencies Jazz…" Prowl said, trying to be the one in the control out of the two of them.

"Whaddya call this? She's missin'!"

"She went on her own, I highly doubt that she would be in any kind of danger."

"Prowler…please… I nearly made roadkill outta her a klik ago, I need ta make sure…" the saboteur begged his bondmate, sharing a bit of his need to do so.

Prowl couldn't deny him, his worry was suffocating, and it was bad enough that he had one of his own.

"Very well, just this once though. It's likely nothing anyway." He agreed, starting up the software that would locate the tracker.

Jessie was by now playing with the robotic cat, using a ball of yarn to distract it, it was amusing to watch such a large creature play with a harmless little thing like yarn.  
>As she watched, she suddenly felt a spike of a headache, making her let out a small whimper and hold it in her hands for a moment before it was gone again.<p>

Shaking her head, she looked up again, feeling slightly dizzy. "Whew…that was nasty-" she cut herself off however, the metallic cat was right in her face, staring off into her eyes intently, she could feel it's hot vents as it breathed with aggravation. "Uhhhh…. Is something the matter?" she asked the creature.

Its eyes flashed for a moment, a ray of light crossing her face making her squeak in surprise before it stopped.  
>"Okayyyyy…" the girl backed away from it, leaning against a wall. It stood in place, looking at her expressionless. "That was a bit freaky…everything okay there?" she asked wearily.<br>The cat shifted, lowering its body. The girl had barely a second to realize it before she could jump out of the way. In the next moment the large creature had jumped to where she had been at, crashing against the wall of car parts, crashing through a window into one's interior.

Not wanting to stick around a creature that was suddenly attacking her, the girl made a dash for the hole she had come through, jumping in and desperately trying to crawl out. The snarl of the large cat startled her, hearing it land inside the shelter again and then running for the hole. It barely missed her foot, pawing at the black and scratching the floor with extracted long talons. The girl let out a little scream at that, pushing herself faster to the exterior of the hole.

The growl the cat let out, much similar to a panther's, made her only jump to her feet as soon as she was out and start running like hell was upon her, although technically the situation could be considered as such.

A loud banging and crashing behind her did nothing to make running in that place any easier. There were so many metal pieces littered across the floor, the likelihood that she would trip on one of them was increasingly great.

The thundering of the heavy paws quickly approaching was warning enough for her to throw herself at the side at the precise moment the metallic cat jumped for her back, missing her by inches.  
>She let out a yelp when she crashed to the floor, but it would only echo to nothingness. No one was there at that hour, no one would hear.<p>

Grabbing the first thing that was in reach she turned around brandishing an exhaust pipe to defend herself.

The metallic cat turned around and looked at her, looking not that much impressed with the weapon. With one swipe of a claw, it got a satisfying yelp of fear from the girl. The futile weapon torn like paper from its talons.  
>It was over now, he accomplished his mission.<p>

He jumped forwards claws outstretched, fangs bearded to sink into that neck.

Jessie closed her eyes, expecting her death. However, it wasn't the talons or fangs that met her, it wasn't even metal.

It still wasn't very pleasant; she was pushed harshly to the side and hit the floor harshly, a body wrapping itself around her trying to protect her as much as it could. It surprisingly followed the momentum to roll to its knees, holding her up in a sitting position.

She didn't have time to register who it was, whose black arms were holding her against their owner protectively, what happened to the creature, not even that she was still alive. No, the first thing that she registered was the sound of gun shooting. Frequent of it too.

She let out a distressed whimper, covering her head as an instant reaction to protect herself from the sound.

Without her consent, the man that had pushed her out of the way picked her up from the floor and moved away with surprising speed. She didn't dare open her eyes though too afraid to see that thing come at her, that which she had thought was innocent and friendly, and had even cared for a few days.  
>"It's all righ', it's not gonna getcha" She heard the man speak.<p>

The gunshots persisted, she could hear the creature snarl, the broken cars being crushed with loud bangs.  
>The man that held her stopped at some point, and leaned down, sitting her on the ground. He sat next to her, his body close. She dare open her eyes then, surprised when she saw the black skiined man that had nearly ran her over that morning. His sun glasses were covering his eyes but his expression was firm and tense as he looked out of the corner of the pile of cars they were hiding against.<br>The sounds were getting distant, going further and further away until they couldn't hear it anymore. Only then did the man look back at her, his face holding concern.  
>"Ya all right?" He asked quietly.<p>

She shakily nodded, too afraid to speak out. A smile formed on his chubby lips, he pat her on the head fondly." Good, it's nearly over, dun worry, mah partner's takin' care o'that thing."

"Y-you're the one that nearly killed me today." She whispered, barely audible. He looked sheepish at that, rubbing the back of his head.  
>"Ah yeah… sorry 'bout tha' again."<p>

She shook her head quickly. "T-that's all right, I think you just made up for it." She said, her body quaking with the shock of it all.

He nodded at her briefly, the smile returning to his graceful features. "Think ya can walk?" he asked, looking her over as if to search for any injuries "It did manage ta hurt ya did it?"  
>"N-no, it didn't." she said looking at herself briefly, she had a few cuts, a bit her skin has been opened when she had fallen down, but otherwise she was in fairly good shape considering she could have had talons the size of your hand carved into her back. "I c-can walk."<p>

"Good, come on then, best we dun' stick around too long." He said helping her back to her feet.  
>He guided her away from there, towards the exit of the car graveyard, keeping an arm around her shoulders comfortingly. Though she was in too much of a shock to notice that, she couldn't even feel her bruises let alone take notice of that, her mind was reeling on that creature.<p>

He stopped suddenly, putting her thoughts to a halt. The two of them looked to the distance as they heard something coming near.  
>The man pushed her back, standing in front of her protectively; they waited tensely for whatever was coming. She was about to suggest they hide again when the figure of a man started to appear, relaxing the both of them.<br>"Took yer time, did ya get'im?" The black skinned man asked as the police officer from earlier came out of the fog.  
>"It got away. "Strangely it sounded like he was angry for it, though she really couldn't tell much from his expression, sunglasses covering the eyes, and the face emotionless. Only the voice gave that little hint of anger. "How is she?" he asked, calming down visibly, putting his gun back into its holster.<br>The black skinned man stepped out of her way, making her suddenly feel naked to the attention.  
>"Alive an' kickin'. That was lucky, barely made it in time"<p>

"W-would one of you bother t-to explain what is going on? A-and how did you find me? T-this junkyard is closed in the mornings. H-how did you know?"

The two men shifted uncomfortably, looking at each other, a secret message exchanged between gazes.

The police officer stepped up to the other man, both of them looking down on her, making her feel small.

"It appears we have some explaining to do.


	3. conversation over a burger

AN: hmmmm I'm a bit indecisive on what to do next.  
>I don't want to blow their cover justtttt yet, I want Jessie to get to know those two a little better.<br>so, any suggestions on quality time with Jazz and Prowl?  
>also please review :3 I miss the feedback<p>

* * *

><p>Both Jazz and Prowl watched the girl with curiosity as she downed two entire McDonalds menus, the shock seeming to have worn her out and made her increasingly hungry. Either that or it was her form of depression to stuff herself.<p>

"Ya gonna get fat if ya keep eating like that." Jazz tried to say, breaking the tense silence that had been between them, he had used the time however to discuss with prowl how to next proceed of course, while she couldn't listen.  
>"I'm not going to get fat, I never get fat." The girl said pointedly. "And besides, I think after this morning I deserve this." She said taking another bite of the hamburger she was holding.<p>

Normally they would have watched the scene with some disgust; organic food didn't particularly look good to them. But given the situation, they were actually watching with mild fascination.

"As we were trying to explain," prowl interrupted, unable to keep his optics off a seed stuck slightly above her right corner lip. "that creature you found-"  
>"the metal cat" the girl interrupted, taking a large gulp of her drink as if it were a desperate need.<br>"Yes, the metallic cat. It is a highly dangerous creature we were ordered to track down and catch, it has been on the loose for the past weeks." Or at least, that was their cover, she didn't seem to suspect them to be cybertronians, and since ravage didn't speak it only helped their case a little.  
>"So you're both cops?" she asked, glancing at them dubiously for a moment.<br>"That assumption would be correct yes."

"Badges?"

"I beg your pardon?" he asked bewildered.

"Badges, as in your police identification." She repeated cleaning her mouth with a napkin "as in, anyone can pass by as a cop these days; I need proof that you're cops."

They stared at the girl for a long moment, a little bewildered of her demand, but eventually prowl moved to reach for his pocket, taking out his badge. Jazz did the same, creating a holographic one like prowl's holoform usually had.  
>She squinted her eyes at them, before nodding seeming satisfied.<p>

"They seem pretty authentic." Inwardly both mechs sighed of relief. "So what was that metal cat exactly? Where did it come from?"

"I'm afraid that information is confidential, rest assured however, it will be taken care of appropriately." Prowl said, keeping his cool.  
>The girl frowned however, a slight pout forming in her face.<br>"I know it tried to kill me and all but it wasn't that harmful…I've been hanging out with it for the past days and it never attacked me before, this was the first time. It even played with me and everything."

"Tha' thing is too unstable ta move around freely." Jazz answered, crossing his arms, watching amusedly as she dug to the bottom of her French fries container.

"The problem is, it might come back for you." The other officer said, discreetly pushing more napkins her way ."Seeing as it already got a good scent of you it can possibly even follow you home."

"Why would it do that? I mean didn't you scare it off?" she asked looking at him suspiciously.

"For a while yes, but it set you as its target now, it will come back." He explained firmly.

The girl's eyes flickered with hesitation, then looked down at the rest of her food with a somber expression.

"Ey now. That dun' mean we're gonna let it, it's our job to get it anyway." Jazz tried to reassure.

"Exactly, we at least now know where it's going to be wondering around." Prowl said, keeping his vague expression.

'Prowler! Yer makin' it sound like we're makin' bait outta'er!' Jazz chided over their bond.

"So of course this means we will be able to give you better protection." The tactician quickly added, trying to correct himself.

"Right" the girl said, pushing the tray away from her. "So…I'm free to go home?"  
>"That is correct, although we ask that you be careful for the next few days just in case."<p>

"Also, whenever ya wanna go somewhere, yer gonna have ta inform us, so we can make sure it dun jump on ya when we're not around." Jazz added.

"Sooo….you're suggesting you act as bodyguard…? Is that it?" she asked, wrinkling her nose at the idea.

"Yes, that is what we're saying, I'm afraid it's not even an option. It's our obligation to do so now."

"Okay… what if I have to go to school?" she asked, leaning back on her seat.

"It's the middle o'summer" Jazz pointed out.

She scoffed at that.

"Doesn't mean I don't have things to do at school."

"Uh huh…" Jazz said, glaring at prowl from behind his sun glasses.

"If you need to go to your school then you can, we will stand by outside standing guard. "Prowl said coolly, sending Jazz a feeling of smug pride.

"Shopping?"

"We will park and follow you with a certain radius distance not to attract attention."

"The park?"

"Same thing"

"Library?"

"As well."

"Girl's bathroom?"

"We can wait outside." He said with a small hint of a smile as the girl groaned.

"Face it, yer stuck with us till we find that thing and stop it" Jazz said with a playful smile, poking her arm lightly.

The girl head desked on the table with a groan. "I want to go home now…"

"All right, we'll take you there." Prowl said promptly, getting to his feet, far too anxious to get out of the drive in.  
>"Don't you two have a life?" she asked as the black skinned man coaxed her out of her seat.<p>

"We're workin' on it." He said playfully.

"Well, since I HAVE to be stalked by the two of you, you mind at least giving me your names?" she grumbled as he directed her out the door, it was getting a little warmer now, the fog almost gone and letting the sun in.  
>"Sure, name's Jason" Jazz said cheerfully. "An' mah partner 'ere is Pearce, dun take his bluntness wrong, he doesn't know how ta express himself very well" Prowl gave him an annoyed feeling at that.<p>

"Jessica, or Jessie if you prefer" the girl answered back looking fixedly at Prowl's car as they passed it. "By the way… how am I supposed to contact you?"

"Ya got a phone?" he asked, knowing the answer full well.

The girl nodded. "Good, Ah can give ya our numbers." He said, pretending to open his car with the key and opening a door for her, while prowl moved off to his own form.

"All right… I guess that's okay…" she said, wearily getting back inside the Porsche.

After the very short drive back to her home and giving her their numbers, the girl was finally allowed to be by herself back in her room. As by herself as she could get.

They remained parked in the street, Jazz keeping watch through his scanners while prowl contacted back to base, reporting their situation.  
>"How the frag do ya think Ravage found out about'er? We made sure we were never followed here." Jazz spoke once his mate finished his call.<p>

"Could have been through many ways, Soundwave is rather talented at finding what Megatron wishes." Prowl responded, resting on his tires. "I informed Prime about our situation, he has granted us the time to protect her for a while, but at least one of us will have to get replaced at one point or another to attend back to our duties back at base."

"Ah can't believe I touched'er…" Jazz said dreamly, sinking in his shocks.

"Jazz…did you even hear a word I said?"

"Ah hugged her prowler…"

"Yes, you did very well getting her out of Ravage's death grip" Prowl snapped, bringing the other back to reality.

"Awww…Prowler! Why dya got ta bust mah bubble?"

"Because, this is a serious situation Jazz, we can't allow…Jessica" he said the word with some difficulty "to get hurt again. Not to mention it risks blowing our cover."

"Right" the Saboteur said, focusing back on the subject. " Soundwave probably knows by now though… If ravage contacts 'im, we got no chance of keepin' cover. What do we do if we're exposed?"

Prowl was disturbingly quiet at that, his processor humming quietly, calculating.

"Ah dun like how long that answer's takin…." Jazz commented, only to receive no answer again. "Yer not findin' any pleasant solutions are ya…?" it wasn't really a question, he knew the other mech was trying hard to reach a new resolution.

"No…none of them are at any satisfying level."

"Comin' from you, that's not a good thing." The saboteur said worried.  
>"The likelyhood of her finding out our true identities is very great. It's basically all a matter of time"<p>

"Lovely" Jazz said with irony, expelling air out of his vents.

"We should plan how to proceed when it happens. I imagine it won't be easy to take in."

"I dun think it's already easy."


	4. Expectations

chapter four! sorry for the long wait, was a bit stuck on this one.

thank you everyone for the reviews and suggestions keep them coming 8 D

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><p>It didn't occur to Jazz and Prowl just how little Jessica would come out of the house, they knew it was very few times, but this was ridiculous.<p>

Within three entire weeks the girl had stayed at home, locked away in her room, barely every speaking unless she had to go for food in the kitchen or missed something from the bathroom.

"Girl's a hermit!" Jazz said, bored beyond reason.  
>"Quite…"<br>"She's as bad as ya are!" The saboteur continued protesting.  
>"Is there anything particularly wrong with that?"<br>"Do ah need ta answer that mech?"  
>"Apparently there is" Prowl said in mild amusement, distracted reading some files he had brought with him to pass the time and do some work.<br>"She's still a kid, she needs ta go out and have fun, not stay in her chair at the computer all day long!"  
>"I'm surprised you have not yet snooped into the computer to see what she is doing"<br>"I'm afraid if ah do I'll find her readin' somethin' like advanced calculus." Prowl snorted at that, preferring to ignore the answer.  
>"Would you rather I did it?"<br>"Ya sure ya wanna hack into her computer? Ya might get caught"  
>"Please… just because I am not a saboteur, doesn't mean I can't hack into a primitive human computer without getting detected." Prowl said sharply.<br>"All righ'… all righ'… ah get it…go ahead. Jus' dun tell me if it's somethin' you'd be readin'."

Prowl resisted the urge to roll his optics, though he really couldn't do that in his alt mode and began the familiar process of hacking into human technolodgy. It was easy enough.  
>Jazz waited in silence for a response, keeping his sensors on the young human not noting any signs of alarm or change in her behavior.<br>Prowl let out a musing noise, as he investigated.  
>"Well?" Jazz inquired impatiently.<br>"It seems she is doing a paper."  
>"A paper?"<br>"Human term for a written investigation project commonly used in schools."  
>"Ah know what ya meant-"<br>"She's doing it on an art assignment."

Jazz forgot all about what he was about to argue and paid full attention to this.  
>"An art assignment?"<br>"It would seem so, a piece of her own that she has to speak about."  
>"Is it in the room? The piece I mean."<br>"No. I think from what is written here that it has already been handed over to a teacher. By the length of this I believe she has been working on it for a while."  
>"I'm afraid ta ask…how many pages?"<br>"One hundred and sixty two, so far." Jazz bristled.

"That it! Next time we see'er comin' outta the buildin', we're takin' her for a walk, girl can't live locked up in there!"  
>"Jazz, we're working as bodyguards. We're not to interfere with her life."<br>"But-"  
>"We agreed on this years ago." Prowl said, unmoving like a stone.<br>"But you yerself said it's only a matter o'time before she finds out about-"  
>"Yes, but that doesn't mean she will find out about everything, there are still things we can keep back."<br>There was an uncomfortable silence between the two, until Prowl could begin to feel the hurt from his partner.  
>"Ya mean…even if she found out about what we are…ya still…?"<br>"It would be for the best. We shouldn't rise any hopes."  
>"But if she finds out through the others then it'll be even worse!"<br>"There will be no others."  
>"Prowler…ya CAN'T hide somethin' like tha'"<br>"Just because she will find out does not mean we will take her to base."  
>"Yer serious about this…aren't ya? Ya dun want'er findin' out."<br>"No. I do not, the less she knows, the better it will be for her."  
>"Soundwave probably knows about 'er by now. If he attacks there's a chance that she may find out through 'im. Ya really want that?"<p>

Prowl didn't answer, his scanners fixed on the words the girl kept on typing away on her computer.

"He won't get anywhere near, over my sparkless shell."  
>"Ah was afraid you'd say tha'…"<p>

At that moment, Jessica's project was closed, leaving prowl to see just the desktop. He turned on the webcam to have a look at what happened.  
>She had leaned back on her chair and seemed to be resting her eyes.<br>A moment later she got back to the monitor, opening the internet explorer and searching around for something else.  
>Movies it seemed, she browsed around a site, and entered a particular movie called "artificial minds", checked its timings and its prices and then closed it off again. Leaving Prowl to the desktop.<p>

"Whats she doin'?" Jazz asked after a while.  
>"Seems to be interested in a movie session."<br>"a movie?What kinda movie?"  
>"Crime and science fiction I believe"<p>

"It figures" Jazz said sulking, proceeding to earn amusement from his mate.

"Perhaps we could suggest to take her to see that movie." He tempted.  
>Instantly Jazz's alt rose on its tires, attention gained, his resolve was renewed. " But only this time. This can't keep happening."<p>

"Ah can take tha'. Though dun' complain if ya want more afterwards Prowler." The saboteur teased.

"The session she seems interested in starts later today, we will wait until then, I'll leave the sociability part to you."

"'course, dun want ya freezin' up." The other snickered.

* * *

><p>Later that day, or, by now night, Prowl and Jazz were beginning to think there would be no going out that day when the door to the building opened, letting out the young girl, wearing an orange t-shirt and not surprisingly black pants, they had learned early on her tendency for black clothing, and Jazz did not hesitate to point that it matched their paintjobs, much to Prowl's ever dwelling patience.<p>

Their holograms looked up, both sitting in their car's seats. She seemed surprised when she saw them, but it was quickly gone. Looking reluctant she made her way over to the nearest of them, Prowl.  
>"Officer, I'm just going down to the mall, movie night and all." She said a little hesitantly.<br>Prowl nodded at her calmly.

"Do you need a ride?"

"What? No! No that's not what I meant!" the girl quickly responded, as if she had realized that it probably would have sounded like she was implying to need one. "I can walk don't worry, walking does me good. I'm just saying it since you both are standing guard…"

"The offer still stands" He said calmly with a small smile.

"W-well thank you…but it really isn't nece-"

"It would be much faster for you to get there, and it would make it easier for us to keep up guard."He explained before she could continue.

"Well…" The man merely shook his head lightly; a small bit of amusement in his stern face as he leaned to the other side of the car and opened the door for her. "Come inside."

Hesitance was clear in the young girl's face, but eventually she gave in, slipping inside the car and looking around it curiously.

It was impeccably clean and it smelled of fresh leather seats and machinery, though there was some other sort of smell in it she couldn't quite place.  
>He watched her with amusement while his holoform pretended to start the car.<br>"Curious?" he asked.

"I've never been in a police car before." She admitted, looking back at the man as he started to drive.

"I will consider that a good thing." He said with a light chuckle, it wasn't anything over emotional, not in the least, but it seemed to fit his reserved character.

"I guess it does…"

A few moments of silence stretched between them as she recognized the streets.

"You spend a lot of time in your house." He chanced, in hopes of making some sort of communication between them, Jazz had commlinked him and was now listening in through the radio.

"It's summer" she pointed out.

"Yet you made a point last time that you wished to go to your school during this time of year." He reminded.

"I haven't finished the things I need to hand in there. So no point in going yet."

"I see… you should be concluding high school correct?"

"Y-yeah…my last year actually…"

"Have you made any plans for what you want to do further on?" He asked, a bit more than just curiosity behind his question. For some reason however the girl's face flushed and she looked down at her shifting feet sheepishly.

"W-well..I still haven't really decided yet…" she admitted, looking out the window in clear embarrassment.

"And why is that? A girl your age should know herself pretty well by now."

"Well yeah… the problem is when you have more than one thing you would like to do." She explained. "I mean I went through a lot of stuff in life, like most people of course, for example I really really like drawing comic books." She said. "But I also like a more active life…." She frowned.

"In other words, you are indecisive."

"Yes" she admitted, sulking a little.

"Would you like some advice?" She looked up at this, surprised.

"S-sure…"

"Do what you like, do something that you enjoy so much you won't even want to retire when the time comes to it." The words were met with silence, the message seeming to sink in.

"I see…what if I like both?"

"I don't see why you cannot do the two?"

"True…" she admitted.

"What kind of 'active life' were you interested in?" he asked, not wanting to let an uncomfortable silence to take its place. The girl again, jumped a little in her seat, the flush returning to her features.

"W-well…its funny you should ask….I …uh…" she fiddled with her hands nervously. "Ever since little I was always the one the break the fights at school, to try and get some justice around the place." She began to explain, looking out the window once more. Prowl's holoform raised an eyebrow at this. "I don't know why, even if it meant I'd get a beating of a lifetime from bullies and the like, I always had this strong sense of…I don't know…wanting to do what's right. Making things fair on everyone. So I figured I might have wanted to keep doing that in the future…and…well…" she gave him a nervous glance and then back down at the floor, mumbling the next words so low he barely heard them. "I sort of wanted to be a cop…"

Prowl felt his spark swarm with both surprise and an irresistible sense of pride, behind him Jazz swerved almost out of the street.  
>The girl looked back behind the seat at the car frowning.<br>"Is he all right?"

"He'll be fine" the man next to her said with a small smile. "So you wanted to join the police force is that it?" At that she gave a small nod, still embarrassed, after all, she was talking to a police officer, and she was just a wanna be. "Are you sure you would be up to the task? It is a very hard profession, one that implies you getting hurt, sometimes severely so, dealing with darkest side of society."

"It would also mean I would be able to help others though, making life safer and better for everyone." She refuted, and the man couldn't help but widen his smile a little more.

"That is true I suppose, still it's a very stressful job, and not one for the kind of heart."

"I know…but…since you're a police officer and all… and since we're being honest here…give me your opinion. Is it all worth it in the end?"

Prowl didn't have to think on it, though his mate kept screaming at him through the bond to say no, Jazz was not having a very good take on her decision.

"Yes. It is." He answered truthfully, earning himself a smile in return from the teenager.

* * *

><p>The movie night had gone well, it was a mildly entertaining film, far too easy to read for the two cybertronians in disguise, but the girl seemed happy to watch it and that was enough to keep their opinions to themselves. During this time they had used the chance to talk to each other via bond, Prowl wanting to know why his bondmate had been so against the idea of Jessica joining the police force.<br>As it turned out, Jazz simply didn't want her putting herself in any type of danger, particularly the physical type.  
>With practiced patience Prowl explained to him that even if they had never had any influence in the girl's life, she could have always chosen the profession anyway, and that it was not their influence that got her there. Her interest in comic books was enough proof of that as neither of them held a particular appreciation to them.<br>Eventually the saboteur resorted to just sulking, Prowl knew he had won the argument, and the mech would eventually let it go.


	5. Candle

Okies, here's another one, a bit longer, Jazz's turn for some bonding time 8 D

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><p>Jazz followed the very ordinary and dull family car along the streets, watching as the young human he had been guarding for three weeks sulked in the back seat.<br>Prowl was away on base, having to catch up with work, so Jazz was on his own to protect the young one.  
>Not that he minded… except for the particular fact that the girl still wouldn't come out of home often.<br>Sure the movie outing had been good, but he had hoped they could have established more of a comfortable company, enough to call her out more often.  
>So it was a complete surprise when he heard her scream that morning at her parents, and come downstairs to their car an hour later with beach towels a parasol and a soda container.<br>He had to admit her parents knew how to choose a good beach, he watched it with envy as they drove along the road just next to it, many humans, young and old enjoying basking in the sun or splashing in the water.

The family pulled into a parking lot ahead, and he followed closely, parking nearby. There wasn't much point in disguising, the place was packed with cars behind cars all wanting in to get to the beach.  
>Still he kept a respectful distance from the family, not wanting to disturb Jessica's life that far, even if from this point of view she looked like she was begging the heavens to take her away.<br>Certainly a lively beach was not a place a hermit like her would have enjoyed, he wasn't too surprised.  
>They went on ahead, taking their things, Jessica would often look back every once in a while to check if he was following, he would only smile back in reassurance.<br>He had changed his own holoform to make it suitable to the environment, changing his form's clothing to swim shorts, a black bracelet in one hand with the autobot insignia on it and his ever present shades covering his eyes.  
>A few woman had kept their eyes on him as they walked by, and even after. He ignored it however, merely finding it amusing, oh Prowl would have been on fire right now if he knew the attention he was getting from the female population.<p>

The family set, parasol in place, her parents put their towels under the shade greedily and not leaving any space for the girl, who reluctantly stayed in the sun to avoid another discussion.  
>After the needed precautions like sun tanning and taking off their clothing to just leave their swim wear underneath her parents went away to swim, leaving her alone, glaring at any boy that would dare give her red bikini an appreciative look.<p>

"Not much a party animal are ya?"  
>She turned her head sharply at him, about to snap at whoever sent the comment before realizing who it was.<p>

"Oh…it's just you. No I suppose I don't enjoy it." She said bitterly, turning back to look at the sea.

Making sure again that her parents were out of sight; Jazz approached joyfully and plopped down on the sand next to her.

"Any reason for that?"

She just shrugged at that, not looking away from the sea.

"I just don't see the point of showing off the body and having unknown people drooling over you, I appreciate much less the fact that I have to wait here for probably hours until my parents decide to come back." She sulked, hugging her knees at that.

"Did they order ya ta stay?"

"Well no…" she admitted recluctantly.

"Then why don't ya go for a swim? It'd be refreshing."

"Can't." she said shrugging, looking at said vast water with envy as a group of girls relished in its coolness "I'm allergic."

"Say what?" he asked bewildered, holding back a laugh.

"It's not funny!"She spat back, a small bit of hurt in her voice "it's the reaction between water and salt or something! It makes me all itchy!"

"Isn't it supposed ta do that to everyone when they have small bruises and the like?"

"Yes, but this isn't like that okay?" she said sharply "its unbearable, my entire skin goes all red and it's not due to sun burns."

"All righ' all righ' I get it. Why not a walk then?"

"It'd feel kind of weird walking around by myself though…used to do it when I was little though…to collect shells, not that excuse seems no longer suiting as I am suppose to be older" she said bitterly.

"Well, I'd have ta follow ya, so ya wouldn't be alone this time." He suggested with a smirk, gaining a bewildered look from her.

"You-" she paused, looking at him as if not really seeing him, for a moment he doubted if his holoform was flickering. "You'd do that?" she asked.

"'Course, I may be yer guardian righ' now but that dun' mean I have ta be impersonal 'bout it. That's pearce's category." He joked, and was relieved to see her giggle at that.

"All right. Where do you want to go?" she asked turning to pick up her ragged purse, it was old looking, and dirty, but she had always carried it around with her it seemed. It usually held not only her money and identification documents, but also a small note book, a sketch book and various drawing tools such as pens, markers and pencils.

"Why dun we go collect some seashells?" he suggested getting to his feet as well and helping her up.

"Really? You won't mind everyone looking at you and sneering?"

"Nah, they can think what they want. Way ah see it, do it with style, or don't bother ding it at all." He said flashing her a smirk as he offered an arm for her to take and guide her away from the parasol. "meanin' the only ones lookin' like foo's will be them."

She had the distinct feeling he had winked at her when he said that, but the shades made it hard to tell.

"You really are a piece…" she said shaking her head as they began to walk near the sea shore where the sand was fresh, there the water at least didn't seem to bother too much. They began scanning it for said shells that would look attractive. "Must be boring hanging around me all the time doing nothing but keep watch."

"Ah admit the keepin' watch is a bit borin'. But not the hangin' around, ah mean, it's an important job."

"So…what drove Pearce away? Beach too much for him?" she asked, lightly pushing a rock around with her bare foot to check under it, a small crab scattered from under it and into the water in a hurry, too afraid of getting squished under the feet.

"Nah, he was called back ta work on somethin', he'll be back in two days" Jazz answered casually.

"And don't you have to do the same?"

"Pearce is higher ranked than ah am, he can take care of both our paper work while I keep watch 'ere."

"Ah, I see…" she said as he lowered himself and dug his hand in the sand, she frowned, not having seen anything there, he was digging his hand quite deep in it until he fished out a shell, a black one with some sea weed stuck in it. "this the type o'thing ya lookin' for?"

She burst out laughing at that, clutching to her stomach, he frowned a little thinking he'd done something wrong, he inspected the shell closely, there was nothing wrong with it was there?

"What?"

"That's a blue mussel shell, they're pretty common" she snickered. "You can find those just about anywhere, you don't need to dig in the sand for them"

"Oh" he said with a pout, throwing it at the sea. "All right miss smarty pants, you show meh what kinda shells I should be lookin' for then." He said, but now that he knew he had to be more selective, he was internally searching the web for the types of shells he should be looking out for.

"We're probably not going to find any good stuff though, beach is packed with people…and the best ones aren't found on land anyway."

"Ya dun say…" he muttered, still scanning the sand. "Where would we find the best ones then oh expert one?" he teased, earning himself another giggle. He was getting somewhere.

"Hmmm…?" she said bending down to pick up a tiny with shell with some soft pink in it. "Well the most obvious is the sea, but that's out of the question for me…" she said.

"That a good one?" he asked looking at the tiny shell curiously

"They're common, but pretty" she said cleaning it meticulously from the sand before stashing it into her bag. "Anyway, the second best place to find good shells would be there".

Jazz followed the direction her finger pointed to, only to look at a formation of rocks between water and sand, where some boys were acting like their silly selves and jumping into the water with incredibly loud yells.

"Ah see…" he looked at the boys with caution while they walked over, the rocks were pretty high up, and the height at which they were jumping was pretty dangerous, but the young humans seemed to know what they were doing and kept to the lower areas. This particular rock formation was connected to one of the many cliffs surrounding the beach, dividing the beach with their dark color.

Without hesitance Jessica moved forwards and began to walk between rocks, jumping from one or another as they came without much difficulty, he was surprised at the ease she had at doing it. It wasn't particularly outstanding, but it was certainly better than the boys who hurried around getting nasty scratches at their feet and legs only to get on their perch and jump down into the sea.

He followed behind, having no trouble keeping up, though the gaps between the rocks were starting to alarm him a bit, if she slipped, it could easily be deadly around there, despite this none of the humans seemed alarmed with it.

"Careful now, ah dun want ta end up failin' on mah job cuz ya slipped" he warned as the girl made a dangerous leap between rocks and landed on all fours on the other side.

"It's not that dangerous…I've done this a lot when I was young" she said inspecting a small pool of sea water that had gained her interest.

"Ah insist…" he said following the leap.

She seemed to ignore him, searching the small pool carefully.

"There, see that one?" she pointed to a place where some algae were hiding a brownish shell twisting and small, a few small spikes protruding from one of its twists.

"Can you get it? It's a king's crown." She informed.

Nodding he dove the hand of his holoform in, careful to make sure it would have the right effect on the water and pulled out the conch, he gave it a curious look.

"It isn't broken is it? Or has anything living in it?" she asked wearily getting close to look at it as well.

"Ah don't think so no…" he said turning it over and then handing it to her. She smiled letting out a sigh of relief. "The ones with these shapes are usually the best, keep looking for some, I'm going to try and get closer to the sea area."

He frowned a little at that but nodded, they separated but he kept a close optic on her as she got to the most dangerous spot in those rocks, she didn't seem to have any problems though, walking around the disheveled surface as if it were natural. After a while he heard a shout of triumph from her and looked back to see her holding something, something much much bigger than the shells he'd been finding.  
>It had mainly a silvery look, but it was marred by different colors within the sun's reflections, it had to be about seven inches long.<p>

"Lucky day!" she said triumphantly, a big smile spread across her face, one he had never expected her able to have and that made his spark leap and soar. "I found an abalone shell!"

She again, dangerously jumped between the rocks and hurried over to show off her shell. It was indeed an amazing piece of mother nature, he was impressed with it, it certainly was a conquest, though the smile that it had gotten on her face, he felt was even more preacious.

"I don't know how the heck it got here! This isn't their area, but hell if I'm going to question it!" she said talking a little louder than she usually did.

"That is indeed a fine find." He agreed.

"Maybe there's more of them around here!" she said with enthusiasm, scampering off again to search for more. It was as if her hermit like nature had never existed to begin with, and was completely replaced by an overly enthusiastic child who clearly did not know the danger they put themselves in nor any restraint.

Sadly there didn't seem to be any other particularly outstanding shells there, but they did find themselves a nice collection of regular shells which they decided to keep as a triumph. By the end of it the girl's bag was making a lot of noise with all the shells inside, but it didn't seem to bring down her mood as they made their way further along the beach.

"So, anythin' else ya like ta take the chance ta do?" he asked.

"Not really." She said, her excitement toning down a bit. "I try to avoid coming here as much as possible."

Jazz was about to argue with that when he noticed something in the distance, a group of tents, a few people were gathered around them, moving round the tables with curiosity, in big letters was a sign saying "beach art workshops.".

"Well, I got a suggestion, if you're willin' ta try it."

"Hm? What kind of suggestion?"

"Ya like arts righ'?" he pointed towards said tents, and her eyes widened a bit when she saw them, interest settling in. He knew he'd won her attention.

They joined among the activities, it was all relative to the beach, many ways to make art out of its resources, mainly the shells people could find around there. There were also impressive sand sculptures of whatever the humans liked to portray.

They had made kytes, heard a lecture or two about sea life preservation, watched other people's work, hearing the song that they played to further everyone's entertainment.

Jessica had joined in in many of the activities, going so far as to actually draw a few comic panels and having a group of smaller children group around in curiosity to see how the story progressed. She wasn't very comfortable with their presence, but wasn't rude and allowed them to read, would even smile when they asked for more.

Eventually there remained only one last attraction, though it was by no means less interesting, it was in fact, candle making.

The skill with which they did it was astonishing, and once they paid for their own they were thought on how to do it, careful not to get burnt with the wax.  
>Once they pulled it out and hang it for sculpting, they had 15 minutes before it would completely cool off.<p>

Sculpting a candle was pretty much like a game of cutting paper into shapes, and Jessica seemed to have quickly caught on, the instructor's words being drank avidly. She had a candle with various tones of reds and oranges while Jazz had gotten himself one of various blues. They cut away, making out shape after shape, at one point the girl had decided to add in some shells to her work perfecting the candle to her need.

When the time was finally up, they finally looked away from their candles and at each other's.  
>To put it plainly, Jazz was impressed, it was their first try and both of them had done fairly well, hers was a mixture of fiery petal shaped cuts with the shells adorning it in a chaotic fashion, making her candle almost seem like it was a flame itself.<p>

She seemed a bit perplexed at Jazz's, who unlike hers was extremely geometrical, it was mostly a work of cutting in rather than cutting out like hers, and in his opinion might have been showing a little too much of cybertronian aesthetic.

The instructed seemed very pleased with them and gave them a few words of advice before saying their goodbyes. Both walking away with their candle in hand.

"Well that was a lot more fun than expected" she admitted as they began their way back.

"Certainly was, betcha won't complain as much next time yer dragged to the beach" he said smirking with triumph, oh Prowl was going to be brooding with jealousy when he sent him the pictures of that day.

The girl snorted at that, looking away with pride." Never, I will never ever want to be in the beach again!"

He had to roll his eyes at that, preferring not to comment, he knew this type of temperament.

They were almost to a point where they would be seen from her parasol but stopped when they heard a child's cry, worried they turned around and fall a small boy sitting in the sand, he couldn't have been more than four years old, he was crying, hitting his hands on a pile of mangled sand before him that had probably once been a sand castle.  
>Before either could act however, a woman came running over, beding down and caressing the child's head with gentle hands and cooing words of comfort, calming the child significantly.<br>"There there now… don't worry, we'll build another one together okay? A bigger one!"  
>The child sniffled but eventually reached to hug his mother and nodded, holding back its tears.<p>

Jessica turned to leave but noticed that Jason had stayed in place, watching the exchange between mother and child with a painful expression. A little concerned she touched him lightly on the arm to call his attention.  
>"Hey…. You okay there?"<p>

"Wha?" he snapped out of it looking back at her.

"You were staring… not with your usual smile I might say" she said concerned. "everything okay?"

"Yeh…yeh I'm fine…just…ya know…" She gave him a look that plainly said 'uhhh no, I don't.' "Its nothin'…c'mon, yer parents should be back by now." He said starting to move away. She looked at his back, the concern still in her features but didn't press on, following after him.

"Jason!" she called, catching up, making him stop once again.

"yeah?" he turned around but was met with the girl's candle being held out to him. "Uhh…."

"Take it." She said firmly, "It's a thank you gift, for coming with me today. You could have just sat in your car or enjoyed the beach yourself, but instead came to put up with me all morning…"

"Jessie…ya dun have ta-"

"I want to, I made it on purpose for that." She said, determination held firm in her eyes as she looked directly to his shades. "Please, it really means a lot to me that you did. So take it."

Hesitantly, the saboteur took the candle, looking down at it with more admiration than he had done before.

"Well if that's the case then here." And before she could retreat her hands he set his own candle on her palm. "I'd say that's a fair trade and dun' argue with meh about it!"

She chuckled at that, bringing the candle close to herself.

"All right, if it makes you feel better about it."

"It certainly does" he said with a huff as they began to walk their way back again.

At some point, they had to separate again so as not to raise her parent's alarm at seeing her with a stranger.

They quickly packed up and went back to the car, Jazz following behind in the crowd.

The drive back was silent and lonely for him, but on his seat rested the red and orange candle, and despite not being lit, it seemed to be warming him as he followed the family ahead.


	6. Trip gone wrong

Jazz had later that day been called back to base, only leaving when Sunstreaker and Sideswipe came to replace his post for the night, it had to be done sometimes, otherwise neither he nor Prowl would ever recharge and refuel.

It was usually done at night however to avoid scaring the girl.

Once he arrived at base he headed straight for his quarters, only stopping by the rec room to grab a few cubes of energon and greet the occasional mech with the night shift before continuing his way.

Oh how sweet it was, the sight of his berth, his mate already laying on his side, doorwings relaxed and still.

He made to be quiet, setting down his hidden weapons on the table before nearing the berth.

With care he set the tiny red candle on the bedside table along with his visor and joined Prowl in berth.

The praxian didn't even stir, obviously having worked himself to exhaustion.

"What is that smell?" Dang it! He thought he had been quiet enough!

The saboteur watched as his mate's optics slowly online again, their icy blue penetrating his soul in question.

"What smell? Ah dun smell anythin' other than a certain very attractive doorwinger sharing the berth with meh" Jazz teased, trying to move around the topic.

"It smells of flower based perfume...and wax."

"Ah...that..." Prowl's gaze sharpened when the polyhexian looked sheepish. "See...Her family took her to the beach today an' she was bein' lonely an' all...an'..."

"You couldn't help yourself" Prowl concluded for him.

"No." the other admitted "But nothin' bad happened I swear!" he added quicly "in fact, I think she had a lot of fun." he picked his visor from his desk again and fiddled with its rims where the mechanics should connect to his own help. "'ere, I'll show ya" and just like that the visor began to project to the ceiling above them the photographs he had taken. "See? Girl was smillin' like a foo'. We wen't searchin' for shells, and there was an art workshop there." he said showing the pictures as he spoke of the events.

"We ended up tradin' our candles" he pointed at the small red candle on beside table, and Prowl observed with keen interest.

Prowl sighed at last, looking back at his mate painfully, he knew where this was going.

"Jazz...I warned you...you are letting yourself get too close."

"Ah know...but ah can't help it Prowler...we're just so close..."

"That is exactly the problem." the other pointed out. "If this continues we might have to start sending others to stand guard and remain away."

"What? No! Prowler c'mon! Its not like Ah'm tellin'er!" The polyhexian said sitting up abruptly, a deep frown on his faceplates.

"I know, but the more we stay near, the harder it will be for when we have to leave again." Prowl explained, sitting up as well and resting his hands on the other's shoulders, attempting to soothe him.

Jazz shoulder's sagged at that, he looked up sadly at the pictures still being projected above, they had stopped at one where she was holding the large shell with the biggest smile yet, looking up at him.

"It ain't righ'..."

"I know it isn't. But we both agreed, this is for the best."

"Righ'..." Jazz said, allowing himself to be dragged down with the other, back to laying on the berth, snuggling together and looking up at the picture. "Guess this is probably a bad time ta tell ya ah agreed ta take 'er to the zoo next week..."

"Jazz..."

* * *

><p>The week went by quickly, and still no sign of Ravage, it was beginning to be a little worrying actually.<p>

Jessica had spent those days glued to her computer, working like only Prowl could, her paper increasing at least three times the size of what it had been last.

She had handed it in on friday, and right after that, had returned home and promptly passed out for the next very long hours.

Jazz was awakened by his light slumber the next morning with a nudge from Prowl's alt mode.

"She's getting ready, I assume we will be leaving soon."

"Hmmm?" the other said groggily, checking his internal chronometer. "Yeh...that sounds 'bout righ'..." he said stretching his tires. "Ya ready for this?"

"The observation of foreign animals kept in captivity for humans amusement? As ready as can ever be." Prowl said dryly.

"C'mon! Cheer up a lil' at least in front of her." the other said his enthusiasm growing.

"I will...I simply just don't...enjoy the idea that we're getting too close."

"Ya worry too much" the other said with a huff."

"And you worry too little."

They didn't continue their argument however as the door opened, their holoforms quickly appearing in place.

"Sorry I'm late, I could find something that I really wanna use there and it took longer than expected to find it." she said in a hurry, still attempting to put on her light jacket as she walked over."

"No biggie baby girl" Jazz said flashing her his typical smile. "the animals ain't gonna run away if we're five minutes late."

"Sorry, I just hate being late." she explained, having the decency to look a little embarrassed.

"Well hop in then, might as well get there." He offered, opening his door for her.

The ride to the location was short, both having easy access to the maps they needed to avoid traffic and take all the shortcuts. Sometimes it felt good to be cybertronian in an underdeveloped world.

"Exactly what is the interest in coming here?" Prowl asked once they waited in line to buy their tickets.

The girl frowned a little, letting out a small pout.

"What do you mean what is the interest? You get to see a lot of uncommon animals."

"Yes, caged animals not in their natural habitat." he pointed out.

Jessica held a bit of a guilty look, but surprisingly stood in her opinion. "Well its not ALL for entertainment, sure that's the initial intent with children and the like, they try and start early. A zoo can serve for many things, one of them is further informing and alerting civilians of the danger some of these animals are in, such as the tigers, they have been benefiting the most from zoo's because of their hard work. "

"Ya seem ta know yer stuff" Jazz pointed out, arms crossed over his chest casually as they took another two steps and continued waiting.  
>"They also serve for other educational purposes, for example, I wanted to come with the intent to learn to draw them a little better." she said raising her sketch book from her ragged bag. "I try to come here often to do it, it helps understand them better if I'm drawing them live and watching, rather than on tv or a photograph." she explained.<p>

"I see...still, isn't it a little unfair that these animals need to be c aged their entire lives? With no rights to freedom?" Prowl questioned again, getting a sharp feeling from Jazz who was trying to tell him to stop.

"Yes and no, on the plus side, they're usually well taken care of these days, rules for the zoos and inspections are very strict these days. The animals live longer and better in many ways and they contribute to their fellow species by serving as an example. While its obviously not the same as the wilderness, they do try to make them feel as much at home as it is possible."

"I guess that is plausible..." he relented.

"Its either that or no one would have any idea of the situation these days." she said turning as they finally reached the booth.

They took their time, Jazz and Prowl giving the girl her space to move around and draw, she would stop here and there when animal caught her interest, found a spot to sit down and began to scribble, often changing the type of materials she used to draw. They had only seen such actions before with Sunstreaker as he had the same type of focus when he painted.

He saw nothing else other than his work, and wouldn't even hear someone when they spoke to him.

The results only supported her previous mention that she had come here often, as the animals were well drawn, despite their constant moving and the visitors stopping right in front of her once in a while.

"Yer doin' good there." Jazz complimented, watching over her shoulder. The girl merely made a sound of dislike and began erasing said drawing, completely ignoring his previous comment, she began to draw the same animal again over the last attempt.

"I don't think you'll have much luck gaining her attention this time" Prowl told him standing right next to him. And true to word, she didn't even react to that, merely keeping a firm gaze on the poor creature rolling on its belly under the sun.

They waited a while more before she began moving once again, only at those times would she exchange a few words with them before turning her attention back to a new model and recommencing.

It soon was noon and by now they were starting to wonder if they should make her eat anything.

"Well, I'm done with this one too." she said with small triumph, closing the sketch book and stuffing it back in her bag. "Thank you for being so patient with me by the way. But I guess this would be better than waiting around my apartment all day."

"Got that right girly" Jazz said resting an arm around her shoulders and directing her to the food area, closer to the other end of the zoo, where most people had already gone to eat themselves."How about we go eat somethin' and then ya can continue yer work?" It wasn't really a question, more like an order, and she seemed to catch on to that.

"All right...I guess I'll use the chance to review today's stuff..." she said in a small voice, her mind already wondering.

Jazz sighed inwardly, there would be no curing this work addiction, he knew.

They sat down at one of the cofee shops, Jessica ordering only a hot dog and an ice tea. She questioned when they didn't order but when they both said they weren't any hungry she didn't push the subject.

Jazz had used the chance that she was busy eating to have a look at the drawings she made, Prowl observing them next to him.

There were many done with pencils, markers, chalk, pens...even mixtures of the many materials.

"You're quite the expressive artist." Prowl noted. "I would have figured you would be more of the calmer one."

She shrugged at that. "I like the emotion of the moment. I don't like sugar coated art" she explained.

"Its quite impressive, how long have ya been practecin'?" Jazz asked flipping another page and curiously looking at a drawing of a monkey scratching his arm pit, he had not seen that one...

"Umm...I think its been...five years now? Yeah probably..."

"Impressive." Prowl said, earning himself a small smile from her.

"Once I found out I liked to draw it became addicting, I did it more and more until I became what I am now...I was terrible in the beginning though." she admitted. "But I always believed practice makes perfect. So it kept me going. I still want to get tons better though."

"That is a good moral to keep when working" He agreed as Jazz flipped another page, stopping at one with a frown. She seemed to catch the motion and looked a little worried.

"What?"

"Where was this?" Jazz asked turning the picture to her, it was one of the birds cages. It had been particularly interesting because of all the fake ones decorating the cage, to which the real birds would foolishly interact with.

"Huh? Uhhh... I dunno? Bird area obviously...one of the first cages I think. Why?"

Jazz turned the picture back to himself, Prowl looking at it as well.

'what is it?' he asked his mate via bond, not wanting to worry the girl further.

Jazz tapped the drawing at a certain area, and Prowl frowned as well.

'Laserbeak.' the saboteur responded to him with worry.

"I-is it that bad?" The girl interrupted them with a worried look.

"Nah, nothin' like tha'" Jazz said looking up again, a smile plastered over his face. Though the girl didn't seem convinced. "Its a great picture, jus' that I dun remember seein' this part of the zoo." he excused himself.

"Oh...well if you want we can go back..." she suggested.

"No!" both said suddenly, frightening her enough to make her jump in her seat.

"S-sorry." she said giving them concerned looks.

"No, we apologize Jessica, do not worry about it. Its nothing." Prowl assured. He failed miserably at it.

"Right...no offense if I don't believe you two right now..."

'I'm haling the ark about this' Prowl communicated to his mate as they distracted the girl.

'Gotcha, I'll keep an optic out' Jazz agreed.

He flipped to the next page, acting like nothing ever happened.

"Dun' mind us, we're just having one o'those inner joke kinda moments...only its not really a joke, but yeh get mah meanin'"

"Right..." she said unconvinced.

Before they could continue, they heard a sudden uproar coming from the many animal cages not too far away from the dinning area. Both men rose to their feet promptly, looking at that direction.

The girl looked frightened at the many sounds, usually around this time the animals would be loud because the caretakers were giving them their meals...but this was much more of an uproar than usual.

It was like every single animal in the zoo was screeching, roaring, hissing, and any other sound they could make out of fear.

"That's odd...I hope no animal got out of its cage..."

Prowl and Jazz were at the ready, waiting for the absolutely last moment until they were forced to return their conscious back tot heir real bodies and intervene, this was the moment they had been fearing, they knew it was.

"Jessica stay near got it?" Jazz spoke.

She looked at him startled, he had addressed her by her full name, it had to mean he was serious... she nodded and gathering her things back to her bag got out her seat and stood behind them. People were gathering in fear, looking out wearily towards the cages.

After a few tense seconds they heard a man's scream.

"Tch...we need ta do somethin'" Jazz commented to his partner, both standing at attention.

"I'll go have a look, stay with Jessica, don't leave her no matter what."

"Gotcha. Careful out there" he said staying close to the girl "C'mon, lets get ya inside. Just ta play safe" he said pushing her into the cafe.

She watched as Pearce quickly covered the restaurant area and disappeared behind the cages.

They waited for a few minutes, until finally, they could hear gun shots. Without warning people started screaming and running into the cafes and restaurants, cramming everyone inside.

"Is he going to be all right?" Jessica asked as Jason kept an arm wrapped around her shoulders to make sure he wouldn't loose her in the crowd. "yeh...he'll be all righ'." he said, though his face was firm with concern, his lips spread in a thin line of worry.

"I-is it that...that cat...?" she asked a little fear reaching her voice.

"Could be, could be an animal that escaped" he said trying to keep her calm. "Dun worry, Pearce can handle himself"

-Jazz, this is Prime, we're on route, but the path is being blocked by the local police, it will take us a little while longer, how are things on your end?- Prime's voice came through the comm link.

- Situation ain't good, we spotted LaserBeak, Prowl went ahead ta take care of it but I'm stayin' behind with her. There's a lot of civilians here Optimus, we need this sorted out quick-

- Understood. Optimus Prime out.-

-Roger that, Jazz out.-

Just as he finished his brief communication and sudden sting of pain attacked him on the back, it wasn't on his real body, no, he knew that feeling of a wound being inflicted on an appendage that wasn't your own. Prowl had gotten hit, and Primus it had been straight in a doorwing!

"J-Jason?" Jessica's voice called him out of his momentary pain, the girl was looking at him with wide eyes, taking a step away, he noticed his holoform was flickering, slag it...

"Jessie...I can explain, but please, righ' now ah need ya ta stay hidden and stay safe all righ'?" he asked, glad that no one was looking at them with how squished together everyone was. "Pearce is hurt, he needs back up. I'm gonna have ta leave ya here. Think ya can stay outta sight?"

"Y-you're..." she said still looking at his flickering body, fear etched into her features.

"Ah'll exlpain it when its over, please. Just promise meh you'll stay hidden." She looked up as he pulled down his shades, showing her bright blue eyes, almost glowing eyes. "Trust meh."

Wearily she nodded, receiving a pat on her head ruffling her head, he smiled down at her. "Ah'll be righ' back. Ah promise." and with that, he flickered out of existence, leaving a very confused human to stare as the spot was quickly used by someone else.

* * *

><p>Jazz quickly transformed back to his bipedal mode, the street was unsurprisingly empty, blocked from all traffic, police scattering about, they were not too panicked when they saw him, they already knew the existence of the autobots, otherwise Prowl wouldn't have been able to move about so freely.<p>

Without hesitating he slipped into the zoo, weaving between the trees and avoiding the many cages. He soon found a trail of energon and followed it, the sounds of battle becoming clear, as soon as he spotted prowl's black and white figure he ran into the fight, not surprised at finding both Laserbeak and Ravage

fighting the tactician.

"Jazz! You weren't supposed to leave her alone!"

"Ah had to! Ya needed help, dun deny it!" he snapped back, shooting at ravage and forcing the cybercat to retreat from Prowl's back. "She's safe."

"And your holoform?" Prowl asked clipping laserbeak's wing just barely, but enough to make its flight more erratic.

"She saw it flicker when ah felt yer pain." the saboteur explained, receiving a sharp feeling from his mate, it wasn't an accusation, but it was dread.

Their good days were over, both knew it.

Before they could continue their debate, the ground started to shake, both cursed as the same thought crossed their minds: frenzy and rumble had to be nearby, and if all four of Soundwave's cassettes were there...so was he.

* * *

><p>Jessica watched in horror as the many civilians were pressing against each others too much out of panic, arguing and basically creating even bigger panic. This wasn't good. It had gotten even worse when the ground began to shake. Out of fear they scattered and actually fought to get under tables or under doors, otherwise they pushed each others to get out of the building. It was a complete mess.<p>

In the midst of the confusion she was pushed along with the crowd to the exterior.

To make things so much better the earth quake was breaking some of the weakest cages, thankfully those weren't the same as the most dangerous animals, but the water from some of them began to flow out, monkeys were scattering about screeching in absolute fear, scaring only the humans even further. Birds had flown off in various directions and god knew WHAT had just passed by her feet in a rodent type of way before disappearing in the crowd.

The screams all increased at one moment when large footsteps could be heard and a large figure emerged from behind the cages and trees.

Her heart skipped, standing in front of all of them was what could be only considered real in anime or science fiction. A large -very large- metallic body, standing there, sporting a white and blue set of colors adorning its complex body, a golden visor on its assumed to be face as he looked down at the many humans, no expression there, no emotion...just coldness. Its gaze stopped, locking with the young girl out of all the other humans there staring back at it.

"Target acquired." he spoke in a completely toneless voice.

That was enough to snap her back to reality, the other had been a metallic cat, there would make sense if there could have been others similar...that meant...oh shit. She had to get out of there.

Without considering it twice she turned on her heels and began to push against the crowd.

The giant made to reach out but at that the many humans began to scatter in fear, attempting to run away, only making it easier for her to gain distance.

Or so she thought. He could walk much longer strides, and was easily keeping up, an unsettling calm on him, as if it knew the inevitable end in it would be favorable to it.

Using the cover of the many other humans she ran for the cage area, only for them to have their path abruptly blow up with what had been a very bright and colorful shot tot he ground. Stopping them on their tracks.

The humans quickly turned around, and despite the large robot pointing a shoulder cannon at them, they ran for it to the sides, leaving the girl right in the middle with no cover.

"Escape is futile, acceptance of your capture advised." it spoke again, his weapon trained on her.

"What if I don't find that favorable?" Well it seemed capable of communication, she could at least try to distract it long enough for...what was she waiting for exactly? She didn't know, Jason and Pearce? Maybe, but Jason had vanished into thin air...she couldn't explain it. It was strange, like he had been a hologram all the time, but she had touched him, had felt him, that wasn't a hologram!

"Opinion is of no importance, desist now." He spoke as he walked near, weapon still trained on her.

"Oh no ya don't SoundWave!" It was sudden, the voice familiar yet different, louder, but the sudden movements around her surroundings made it even hard to take in. Within moments the white and blue had tried to move forwards in a hurry to grab her, but two large...she looked up in fright, the sun nearly blinding her as she looked up, two large figures black and white painted, stopping it from coming at her. Two more very large robots. Things were starting to get a little crazy.

"We are not letting you get any where closer!" The other voice, the same effect as the last, familiar, yet..."Jessica, go back through the cages, hurry to the exit, the police is waiting there."

It was the robot on the left, holding back the blue and white by the left shoulder, the three struggling with their impressive force, the ground cracking beneath their large feet. Car doors were held high, the police symbol decorating them.

"P-pearce?"

"Jessica! Go!" the other shouted, the effort they were making was visible.

"J-jason?"

"GO!" both shouted at the same time, the blue and white suddenly backing away, attempting to use their shot moment of unbalance to shoot, both dodged in time to avoid it, the shot flying above her head.

With that as enough warning she ran for cover, quickly getting herself out of view, she was terrified, so much so she couldn't get herself to move all the way to the exit, what if there were more around there? What then? Against all reason, she ran for one of the large trees, avoiding stepping on a running tattu and began climbing the tree, using the broken cage's bars to pull herself up until the branches and then hiding in its foliage.

What was going on? Why or WHAT were Jason and Pearce? Their cars? It certainly had looked like so...she waited in silence, holding back sobs of fear, her heart beating strongly inside her chest, she had to be quiet now...and wait it over...after that she would have to attempt to sneak her way back to safety.


	7. Protecting the protectors

Despite her many prayers to whoever was listening, the battle raged on, shouts, shots and crunching sounds that sent chills up her spine. The typical wine of metal being bent.

She couldn't see it yet from her perch on the tree, but it was getting close.

Below she heard voices shouting, thinking it might have been another poor soul trying to escape or even the police or a zoo keeper coming to help, she peeked down, only to quickly pull herself back and hide over the thick branch.

Below were not one, but two more robots, granted much smaller than others, approximately of human size she guessed, but a robot was a robot. And as far as she knew, they were dangerous.

There was one, black and red, and another of purplish and gray tones. Both were looking around as if scouting and speaking in a strange language of chirps, grinds and other strange noises, but it was clearly a conversation.

Before they could search around too much, the cracking noise of a tree very near by draw their attention. The fighting was reaching them. She had to get out of there, but couldn't while they were still down there.

Sealing her fate to be stuck up there, one of the white and blacks was thrown into scene, crashing against cage bars with a yelp of pain and falling to the floor heavily, making the ground and trees shake.

It was the- or what she assumed to be- police car robot, his doors were bent and leaking something vivid pink, the same liquid could be found dripping from other parts of his body, he had a series of shot holes on his side where the worst damage seemed to be.  
>His eyes flickered on and off as he made an effort to get back on his feet but just fell back.<p>

"Prowl!" Jason's voice..she was sure of it, but the one who spoke had been the other black and white, being pushed back into the scene by gun fire.

"We got him boss!" One of the smaller ones said running to the one taking refuge. He tried shooting at them, successfully keeping them at bay. He didn't look much better for wear than the other. The visor he had on his face was cracked and flickering, one of his shoulders was wide open, showing the circuitry beneath, there were claw slashes on his torso and he too was leaking a lot of the same pinkish liquid.

"Slag it!" it sounded like a curse, he tried to peek past the corner but quickly retreated again to avoid more gun shots. "Give it up SoundWave, Prime is on his way!" he shouted to the other, she assumed the white and blue. "Yer at disadvantage, yer never getting' Lyric ta Megatron!"

"Autobot Jazz: outnumbered, autobot Prowl: out of commission, surrender is illogical." the monotone voice answered from somewhere out of her view.

"We ain't EVER gonna let ya get those greasy fingers on that girl!" the black and white growled, crouching on the floor with his gun ready. "Leave 'er outta this!" Jessica watched in wonder, hearing the words intently, her heart beating. She understood what was being said, but couldn't make sense of it. Why? Why were damn robots fighting for her? Where did they come from?

She didn't ponder on that for long before something fell near the path entrance, rolling in the area.  
>"SLAG!" the white and black threw himself away, jumping for cover. Taking the cue the girl the did the same, hiding behind the tree trunk. The next instant there was a flash of heat coming from behind the tree, a noise so loud she thought she would go deaf.<p>

Jason's scream of pain could be heard mixed with it as well as her own frighted voice.

The silence that came next to it was ominous, she turned around in fear, looking bast the scorched trunk, everything looked a mess, it had been a grenade, that much she was sure of.

The police car robot had been thrown further away in an even worse state, but he still looked awake, despite being unable to move. The other black and white was making an effort to get back to his feet only to fall against a slump of rock protruding from the floor.

The one they called SoundWave came around the corner, e too had suffered damage, but it did not look as bad as before.

"Boss!" out of the shelter of the cage next to her three the smaller bots came out running, seeming unharmed, they ran to the white and blue. "We couldn't find her boss, sorry. Little squishy got away."

"Unacceptable. Frenzy, Rumble, proceed the search."the taller ordered.

"Ah ...thought we told ya... SoundWave." all four of them turned their heads to look back at the mech still trying to fight. Behind him the other was also making an effort to gather his bearings and attempting to get up, despite the damage, neither managed to lift their chests much from the ground before falling back down from lack of strength.

"you are... not touching... our... sparkling" the other continued, growling the words with determination.

Sparkling? What was a sparkling? What were they talking about? She thought they were after her?

SoundWave looked at the two unemotionally, watching as the last he had taken down coughed more of the pink fluid.

Without saying anything he brought his shoulder cannon down again and aimed.

It was only at that moment that the reality seemed to sink in her heart, he was going to kill them, exterminate them, finish them off...yes they were robots, but...they had protected her. Were still doing it until the bitter end... could she really watch this?

The weapon whirred loudly, energy building up like it had done last, her heart skipped. It was like one of those moments where you go down the stairs, reach the end and only to realize that there was one more step, the sickening pull of gravity bringing you down.

She didn't know how, or why, but the next thing she knew she was sliding down the cage bars next to the tree and running in between them.

"STOPPPP!" she spread her arms wide, in a feeble attempt to cover those much bigger than her, tears threatening to fall from her eyes, despite the fear, despite the absolute terror quaking her legs. She stood her ground, glaring up at the white and blue. "DON'T you DARE kill them! You'll have to kill me too if you dare!"

"Jessica,,,, DON'T! Get... outta'ere!" Jason coughed behind her, his weakened voice only strengthening her resolve, they were in need, this couldn't go on.

"You need me alive don't you? Or you would have shot me along with every other human back there!" she spoke to the one still standing. "Then you will have to not kill them if you want me to come with you alive."

Soundwave observed the small human for a long minute, their gazes firm and unrelenting on each other.

"Don't be... stupid! Go back... to the entrance! Run...!" it was Pearce's strained voice, but she didn't look back.

"I can't stand idly or run away! This is probably the stupidest thing I've ever done, but I'd rather be stupid and die than leave you to this because me me! Don't ask me to take that burden!" she shouted back, her gaze then focused on SoundWave once more. "If you leave them alone I promise on my word, I will follow you willingly and do whatever you want me to! As long as they get to live."

"NO!" the two behind shouted in unison.

"Terms: acceptable." SoundWave responded, leaning down on one knee and holding out a blue hand. She got the tip...

Behind her she could hear Jason dragging his body on the floor attempting to reach them as she walked over calmly.

"Jessica! Stop! Ya don't...know what...they'll do to ya!" he shouted with an edge of desperation in his voice.

Just as she was about to step onto Soundwave's hand, she looked back, a sad smile crossing her features, they looked like they were for the first time afraid of something, their faces, despite being metal, easily transmitting that fear. Her attention however was redirected by a strange movement, the trees...

A small beam of light shone in the foliage.

Without warning SoundWave retreated from his spot, back slapping the small human in the other direction as they just narrowly escape a frighting mass of energy blasting to where they had been standing, the ground now bared a crater.

"Autobots! Engage the enemy!" A voice boomed into the stunned silence.

Without warning flashes of colors, gun shots and yells filled the small space, moving too fast and occupying too much of the space for to make out what she was seeing. The backslapping of a large metallic hand obviously had not helped.

Without understanding just what had happened she felt something surround her and enclosing her in darkness, startling her enough to try and throw herself at the small gaps it had and to the light. It shook her none too nicely as it moved.  
>"Calm yourself young one... I will not hurt you" the same voice spoke from before as the gaps widened, revealing to her that she was kneeling on a large, hand. Slowly she turned her head up to look at the tall figure, just barely able to fit under the trees in a semi crouch. "You're safe now. Soundwave will not harm you any further." his voice, despite its obvious strength had softness, something that guaranteed what he promised...safety.<p>

"Optimus! He's getting away!" the voice made her snap her head to it in alarm, the large robot holding his spare and around the other to make sure she wouldn't loose balance and fall off.  
>"Leave him, we have more pressing matters right now." The robot holding her ordered, then looked back down at her trembling form. "You were very brave standing up to him like that." he praised "We will take it from here however."<p>

"J-j-jason a-and P-pearc-ce...t-they" she said unable to stop the stammering, there were loads of them all around, it was a frighting sight, just how many of these had been made?

"They will be fine, our medic is taking care of it. "he said gesturing for the two fallen bots who were being tended to by a red and white.

"M-medic?"

"I will explain when we arrive at a safe location, until then please try to remain calm. We mean you no harm." he spoke in promise, giving the others a short gesture for them to help the so called medic transport the injured

They then began to walk out of the ruined zoo, animals were still scattering about in fear or hiding.

Once they reached the gates the police was crawling all over the place. The robot holding her gave them a brief description of the situation. Strangely no one questioned her presence, nor did they make a move to retrieve her back into humanity. The large mech bent down and allowed her back to the floor, helping her when she swayed a little, the shock still not worn out.

"Please stand back" he asked before taking a few steps away himself, and with that, his body started to shift, looking like it would fall apart, until it basically sat on the road in the form of a truck, door open in invitation.

Jessica stared at him, only vaguely away that her lips were just slightly parted away in awe.

"Please, if you don't mind, enter my cab, we have little time to get you to safety" he said driving just a little bit forwards.

She noted how the other robots were following example, basically transforming and shifting into other vehicle types, mostly cars as they all seemed smaller than their apparent leader, the medic was docking the two injured that had protected her into his long trailer which had been waiting for him there.

"They're good to go Optimus." the medic spoke closing the door and shifting himself into an ambulance.

"Please" the one called Optimus repeated, his door flapping once to call her attention.

Looking back at the humans completely ignoring her she took in a dry gulp, before moving forwards and climbing into the cab.

"Autobots, roll out, back to base" he spoke to the others, and on that order, they began to drive with him taking the lead.

The first few minutes were stretched in silence, she felt extremely uncomfortable, staring at the steering wheel in front of her, moving on its own.

It had been so quiet in fact that when he spoke again she jumped so high she hit her head on the roof.

"Apologies, I did not mean to startle you." He spoke as she rubbed her head.

"Ow...no..no..my fault..." she whined.

"I'm afraid I must ask you what happened today, Soundwave is not one to attack on his own unless he is certain he will accomplish his mission.

"I... I don't know... I don't know WHAT that thing was! or...for that matter, what YOU are. And no offense but it is a bit beyond creepy. What are you? Spirits possessing a truck?"

A soft chuckle came from the engine, the one driving her seeming amused.

"I must apologize, we are autonomous organisms from planet Cybertron, from many galaxies away from here, and I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobot faction, one of the two in our planet and ally to your race." he explained with practiced ease.

"Uhhh...so...exactly how...autonomous are you?" she asked wearily, staring at the wheel, unable to help herself.

"We are as sentient as a human being, capable of emotions and feelings, notions of pain and happiness among others."

"So...you're alive..."

"That is correct, I am as alive as you are or any human in this world."

"Ah...guess that clears all doubts in that area." she said her voice a little weakened from the shock.

"As I have said, we autobots are allies to your planet, there for we mean you no harm. The one you saw today, was called Soundwave, he belongs to our opposite faction."

"And I'm taking that's a bad thing from the way you're saying it."

"Yes, his faction, the Decepticons, defends that all powerful enough should rule, and the weak should perish or serve."

"Lovely..."

"Which is why I must ask you to tell me exactly what happened today, seeing as both my second in command and third in command will be on medical care for at least a few good hours."

"Um...sure..." she said wearily, slowly staring to tell the truck the day's events. By the time she was done, most of her stress had worn away, and instead her body was beginning to protest with tiredness.

She blinked tiredly, trying to keep her eyes open, they had been in the high way for a few hours, Optimus had been thorough, asking for every little detail, inevitably having stretched their conversation for this long, though she had a feeling he was buying himself time.

"Where are we going?" she finally managed to ask, looking out of the window with a small frown. The lovely sunny day had gone rainy, and as far as she could see it was all mountains and trees, barely any cars passed by.

"To our base, it will be safer for you until all is clear." He spoke taking a turn out of the highway and further into no where.

"Can't I just go home?"

"I'm afraid not...it is being taken care of however, please have a little patience, we do not want another repeat of this incident."

"What about my parents? I mean they won't really worry much but it will be strange if I don't get home soon..."

"It is being taken care of, please do not worry."

"Okay...then can you at least please tell me why this...SoundWave was after me? Why it was sending those others after me?"

There was what sounded like a sigh from the truck.

"Jessica...I'm not sure I'm the right bot to tell you... I would rather you wait until Jazz and Prowl can explain it themselves." Jazz and Prowl she had learned, were none other than Jason and Pearce, which hadn't been much of surprise after what she witnessed that day.

"Please...sir...I...I think I deserve a little honesty here for once, I've been guarded for weeks, I was attacked twice already, I'm being taken away from home by things I never thought possible! I need something to hold onto here!" she begged.

She could almost feel the mech's weariness before he answered.

"I'm not sure that what I will tell you will hold you up, but rather pull you down. It is a very complicated matter, I must ask you to be patient...and to trust Prowl and Jazz, as soon as they are able to, I'm certain that they will explain everything."

She sighed, hugging herself idly, she was going no where with this...he wasn't going to tell her a thing.

She guessed she could only wait then, she leaned against the window, fatigue setting in, the rhythm of the rain drops in the windows soothing her racing heart.

She started feeling her eyes weigh, the occasional bump on the road doing little more than to lull her.

As her vision began to loose sense and her brain decided to take a break, she noted idly how funny the castle in the distance looked at such an odd place...right into a mountain.


	8. Long time due

When Jessica next came to her body was sore and still protesting from the rough treatment it had gone through, so forcing herself to fully awake was being a slight problem.

Her brain felt like it was working at snail pace, slowly taking in what her senses could bring to her and then accompanying it with bits and pieces of memory.

She was lying down on something that was definitely not a mattress. The floor maybe? No...her floor was made of wood...and this felt more like metal. She frowned a little at that, taking in the smells. That was funny... nothing like home, nor did it particularly smell like a hospital which was the next likely choice given her pained body. It smelled clean yes, there was definitely some cleaning detergent in the mix, but mostly it oddly smelt like a garage.

What was she doing in a garage? Her brain made an effort to try and remember, only succeeding in giving her a mild headache.

She let out a whimper and shifted to hold her hands to her head.

"Shhh..." she heard, and to her surprise something large and again, made of metal rubbed at her back in what was likely an attempt to be soothing motions. "Go back ta recharge..."

the voice was enough to make her brain suddenly get back into action, everything in her body going alert as she opened her eyes. She was staring down at white metal, not much could be said other than that as her hair covered her face, so she slowly lifted her head up, pulling her hair away and coming to face with a large face, baring a blue visor fully repaired and a fearful smile. "It would have helped if ya listened..." he said meekly.

The girl let out a small squeak, scrambling to sit up and back away but was cornered by a black hand, holding her from going any further.

The mech holding her made to sit up, completely changing her sense of gravity with that, she glued to the hand, trying to get as much distance between her and it, like a cornered animal.

"Shh... calm down. Ah ain't gonna hurt ya" he said looking to the side briefly in worry before turning his attention back down at her. "ah promise okay? Jus' dun panic."

"Y-you..." was all she could manage to said, her heart skipping quite a few beats.

"Yeh...guess its hard ta accept." he said lowering her down to his lap, only to land on a large fabric covering his legs.

"What-I mean- why?" she squeaked again, though as she said it, her conversation the previous day with the truck started coming up. "Well shit...I got myself in a bigger mess than I thought" she said wearily. "either that or I'm loosing it."

Jazz frowned removing his hand from behind her and giving her her space, he needed to get her comfortable.

"Yer not loosin' it. An' dun curse." he scolded, watching as her head spun around to look at the medbay, the very sterile clean medbay, displaying various medical tools that probably looked less than welcoming. He had hoped that she would keep sleeping until they got out, but he supposed that was asking a little too much...she had been sleeping for almost a full day now. "Yer in our medbay, no one's gonna do anythin' to ya here."

"W-what am I doing here? Better yet why am I here?" she said looking around wearily, unsure if she should inch closer to the bot for safety of the sinister room, or jump down and make a mad dash for it...

then again that last one was probably not a wise idea.

Jazz let out a heave of air as a sigh, his lips stretching into a thin line. How was he going to say this? This wasn't how they had planned.

"Its complicated..."

"I could have guessed that on my own by now." she snapped, clearly on defensive. Jazz held back the will to tell her not to talk back to him like that.

"The basic idea is that yer safer here for now, its no longer safe where ya lived."

"Okay...why?"

"How much did OP tell ya?" he asked resting his back against the wall tiredly. He was still not fully recovered, there would have to be a lot more repairs to do, but he was better off than Prowl.

The girl took her time, seeming to try and remember the conversation he had been told she had with the Prime. He just wanted to make sure nothing slipped.

"Well...he said your lot were from another planet, and that you were divided in two factions...I don't remember the names, but basically that the guy from yesterday and those smaller ones were from the other faction. Or..something along those lines."

"the Decepticons are the other faction, we're the autobots" he said tapping the symbol on his chassis lightly "ya can tell us apart with these."

"Right. And as for my question?" she said while looking at the symbol, attempting to memorize it fully.

"Well, that's the complicated part." he answered, looking to the side again, to the berth next to them, where Prowl was resting, his doorwings had been removed for repairs, and he was still going to spend a few more days there at least. "Gimmy a klik, ah dun wanna start explainin' this without Prowler here." he said, beginning to call his mate through their sparks, stirring him awake slowly.

Prowl let out a hiss as he woke to the pain, his battle computer jumping first thing upon onlining, giving hims a situation status.

"How did you do that?" she asked, peering over his leg to the other with curiosity, staying on her hands and knees however for stability over the live body.

"He's mah bonded." Jazz said with simplicity.

"Bonded?" she asked looking back up at him and he gave a nod in answer.

"it means we're connected, closest thing humans have ta it is ah suppose marriage, but we go a lil' bit further than tha'. We merge our souls togetha."

"Oh...is that really possible?" she received another nod.

"So you guys are...?" she left the question pending, looking between them.

Jazz lifted an optic ridge behind his visor, taking a moment to understand what she was implying.

"Oh, tha', well, yeh, sort of. It dun really matter with us, our notions of females and males are different.

Females are jus' those of us with a more fertile spark, males can still spark but aren't nearly as successful."

"Spark?" He tapped his chest again.

"Our heart an' soul. Also the term we use fer when we're carrying a new spark."

"Jazz...why did you wake me to this conversation?" Prowl's voice interrupted them, earning a chuckle from the saboteur.

"Sorry there Prowler, didn't want ta begin without ya."

"I see...I assume its that time?" the other asked turning his head where he lay, unable to sit up. The girl looked back as their gazes met, icy blue optics examining her.

"Yep, ain't no backin' now."

"Very well, then I will hold you responsible for most of the conversation while my systems catch up" he said rubbing his faceplates with a light groan.

"What are you two talking about?" Jazz turned his attention back to her, seeming unsure of himself.

"Jessie, we gotta be honest with ya, we never wanted this ta happen, we've been watchin' ya for a lot longer than ya were aware of us."

"Well I knew HE was roaming around the house for the last few months" she said pointing to Prowl.

"Nah...longer than tha'" he said with a small smile.

"Longer?"

"Way longer girl, we been around ever since ya started crawlin'...actually before that."

She looked at him disbelievingly, as if expecting him to shout 'april's fool!'

"Seriously?"

"Yep, 'twas for the best. We wanted ta make sure ya would stay safe. So we kept ya hidden."

"Wait wait wait wait! KEPT me hidden?"

"seventeen human years ago when you were born arrangements were made for you to join your present familial unit where you would grow up undercover and unaware for a chance of living a normal and safe life." Prowl spoke up, earning a pout from Jazz.

"Way ta say it Prowler." he chided.

"What the hell is he saying? You'd think he's insinuating I'm adopted."

"Ya are." the girl frowned heavily, looking back at Jazz. The saboteur cringed under that harsh gaze, looking sheepish. "Well, ah dun really know how to say this...ain't no way ta lay it down on ya softly..."

"What do you mean?"

Jazz was struggling with his own words, seeking the less hurtful option he had.

"You are not a human." Prowl spoke up again, this time Jazz full out glared at his mate, but the praxian seemed unaffected.

A short scoff of held back laughter was heard from her. "I'm sorry?"

"'Tis true Jessie..." he said turning her to face him again. "Yer not human, yer one o'us."

She tilted her head at that, looking at him as if he had grown another head.

"Oh I'm sorry, I wasn't aware I was made of metal and of the size of a giraffe. Let me check" she said feigning to inspect herself "oh look! I'm not!"

"Cool it girl, ah can explain" he said trying to sound as calm as he hoped he could.

"Clearly." she snapped, crossing her arms.

"Look, we got proof that ya ain't human, though if ya wan' clinical proof yer gonna have ta wait till Ratch comes back." he said, painfully watching as she tried scooting away whilst sitting.

"I will definitely want a look at that." she said harshly.

"Righ', but ah have another way ta prove that yer not. If yer willin' ta let me show ya." she looked him up and down wearily, suspicion wasn't even being hidden.

"How would you do that?"

"Just a few minutes ago ya asked how Ah woke Prowler up, I'm gonna be doin' the same to ya. Might be a lil' woozy in the begginin' since yer not uses to it." he warned.

"I thought you said that was for married couples." he chuckled at the term, watching as her body relaxed a little when she found out it didn't need any sort of medical procedure.

"It is, but there are many types o'bonds. Bondeds like us two, bonds to family, creators, or parents as ya call 'em, siblin's, offspring's." he explained gently.

Her eyes darted between the two, understanding coming to her for a fleeting moment.

"Are you insinuating that you have this kind of deal with me?" that sounded even more preposterous than her being a giant robot!

"Ah'm not insinuatin'." Jazz said firmly, holding out a hand in front of her, stretching a finger to touch her arm. "Ah got yer permission ta try then?"

"will you not if I say no?"

"He won't" Prowl answered for his partner, gaining another harsh glare.

"Okay, jus' relax, this ain't supposed ta hurt but it should be a lil' uncomfortable at first." he warned.

The girl looked at him sceptically, waiting for nothing to happen, crossing her arms in a "HA! See? Nothing happened!" manner.

Just as she was about to pronounce it though she felt a pull at her heart, like something had crawled inside her body and gave it a good yank, she gasped, clutching at her shirt over where her heart was supposed to be and bent in her place, feeling like the air had stopped going inside.

Jazz hissed, moving his hands carefully to keep her from falling to her side.

"Maybe tha' was a lil' too strong, sorry." he said, easing the pull.

"C-coincidence!" she said a little too loud, looking panicked. At that Prowl took his turn, pulling at the same small presence between their bond.

The girl let out a small squeak of surprise, looking terrified.

"It is not coincidence, we tell the truth, despite having hoped never to have to tell you." he spoke calmly, proceeding with sharing his feelings of honest, Jazz following suit.

"W-what...what am I?" she asked shakily, leaning on the fingers for support, her eyes widening and watered, unable to hold it back. It was common for the first bond contacts to make one feel overwhelmed with emotions and normally cry or have an emotional outburst.

"Yer cybertronian, 100% one o'us."

"B-but...I'm n-not..." she wasn't sure how to say it, so she began pinching herself.

"The body ya wear righ' now was made for ya, we been replacin' it an' upgradin' it as ya grew up." he said.

"We are able to change bodies, it is only our spark that really matters when it comes down to it." Prowl spoke out, not going any further with the connection.

"though when ya reach adult form some things will change foreva" Jazz explained smiling lightly.

"But-"

"we requested that body made for you in order to hide you among the humans. Should the Decepticons ever know of your existence..." he didn't finish. They already knew, it had all been for nothing.

"W-w-why?" she asked shakily, making both mechs tense.

"Ya remember what ah said about genders?" Jazz asked, receiving a nod as an answer "that's why."

She gulped, understanding the repercussions of what it meant.

"I think I'm going to be sick..." she muttered, leaning further against the fingers, her support was fully on them now, dependent on that hold. Jazz used the opportunity to pull her up closer to his chassis again, surprised at the lack of resistance. "So if I'm...and you're...and you can..." she was piecing the things together.

"Yeah?" Jazz asked as they waited for her to blurt it out.

"Is the term 'sparkling' the same as infant?" she questioned sounding dizzy.

"Ya heard tha' didn't ya? Had ta disobey and not to the entrance like we told ya" Jazz said patting her back lightly with his fingers.

"Yes, sparkling is the term for infant, more accurately for the equivalent to a baby, as a child or teenager would be called as a youngling in our species." Prowl informed, feeling a little ashamed that he had let that slip.

"So I'm..."

"Well yer not a sparklin', not anymore at least." Jazz said letting her body adjust to him, carefully turning her on her side so that Prowl could see her shocked face as well, though she had been quick to duck it and use her hair to hide it. "Ya would be a younglin' by now."

"W-hat? But I'm seventeen!" she protested, somehow that notion sounding too stupid for her.

"Different time space for us, ya would be aroun' the equivalent to 14 ah think."

"Yes, she would be" Prowl confirmed. "the maths is to divide her current age by 1.2" he said neutrally.

Oohhh her head hurt...this was too much...what was she supposed to make up of this? How should one react to finding out they were born of a species they weren't even aware of? How did they even breed? Wait no! She'd rather not know that bit.

What of her real family? What of her colleagues? Everyone she'd known?

"We know its a lot ta take in, we didn't want ya findin' out." Jazz spoke succeeding in relaxing her a bit, kneading his fingers across her back. "We jus' wanted ya ta have a chance at bein' happy."

She did not answer, it didn't make sense, it had NO SENSE! The two mechs were glad that she at least not inherited Prowl's glitch to crash upon hearing something illogical, but watched closely as she remained quiet, her body slowly relaxing with its tiredness until her eye lids were dropping and she went limp on the hold, finally settling back to sleep.

"That went better than expected." Prowl said, turning his head back to look at the ceiling.

"For now..." Jazz agreed, watching in silence a while more before slipping back to lying down and getting himself comfortable for recharge, making sure the tiny form wouldn't get squished with his weight.


	9. A Sunny Up Side Down

Jessica had woken up later, still in Jazz's arms being held carefully by the seemingly offline mech. The medbay was dark, only emergency lights were on. She carefully moved near his face and waved an arm in front of his visor, no reaction.

Good, then he wasn't conscious enough to see her, the other mech, Prowl was unmoving, so he probably was out of it as well.

This was a time as good as any, she slowly made her way out of Jazz's arms, slipping onto the berth and then hurrying to its edge, looking down. She frowned, it was a long way down... searching for the bars holding the berth up she held onto one and slid all the way down safely.

Giving a cautious glance around she ran across the large room, searching for the right door, because there happened to be many of those... finally she saw the exit sign over one of them and ran over. However a problem imposed... the button to open the automatic door was waaaayyy up there, and she was wayyyy down there.

She frowned in thought, looking around for something she might use, a mop caught her attention.

Running over to it, she realized that this was going to be harder than it looked. She would have to be very careful dragging it to place and not to let it fall, not to mention keep it quiet.

It was heavier than anticipated, and the top would scratch on the wall far too loud for her liking.

A groan made her stop on her tracks, she looked back fearfully towards the only two filled berths. Prowl stirred in his sleep, turning on his side, but that was it, after that he was back to being silent.

Inwardly sighing of relief she proceeded with her task, dragging the mop all the way to the panel and lifting it just a little from the wall, letting it fall back onto the panel's button.

With a bleep, the door hissed open. She let go of the useful mop and ran out the door into the illuminated hall.

Unsurprisingly it was just as big, but no one was in sight, the problem was deciding which way to go, if there was any exit to the place then she would have to be careful, for all she knew these halls could be a maze. So she stuck to the good old maze solving trick, always head to one of the directions.

With this she picked the left, many doors came by, but she didn't even try to open any, she didn't have a mop this time.

15 minutes past, and she was still no where near finding that blasted door, it didn't help that the place was generally enormous and her tiny legs took longer to cross the halls, she took a small break by one of the doors, one of the few that was actually open, inside was what looked like a storage room, for it held many crates and materials neatly stacked inside. She leaned against the wall outside, catching her breath.

As if to curse her further, she started hearing voices and footsteps in the distance, coming closer.

Panic struck and the little human, in a desperate attempt at keeping hidden ran inside the storage, hiding among crates. She waited, watching from her spot as a pair of mechs walked past, one green and the other white and blue, they were talking about something to do with a "refined energon". Neither stopped as they walked by and soon their voices were dying out.

"Teehee...this is gonna be so awesome!" a voice startled her, she hid back in between the crates in a second, keeping quiet, only now realizing that there was a small light coming from behind them.  
>Daring to make sure she would be safe there she moved towards it, peeking around the edges and finally stopping on top of one.<p>

"You're an idiot..."

"Awww, but you love me like that!" the voices spoke between them.

She peeked out to see two more mechs, a golden painted one, standing besides the other red one. They looked extremely similar, safe for their helms and paint.

"Prowl is going to put you in brig for life and then offline you" the golden one spoke as the red was closing a tiny box and wrapping it.

"Naw...he'll scold me for a while, but its going to be soooo worth it! The look on his face when he sees it!"

"You know he's not going to open it..."

"Not if I say its anonymous!"

"Right... like that's not suspicious."

The girl inched closer to the edge, avoiding a bolt laying there forgotten, and tried having a good look at the box the red one was wrapping.

"Relax Sunny, its a harmless prank I swear."

"Right... your notion of harmless is a bit off the scale..." the red one got to his feet, box in his hand and a prideful smirk on his face.

"Harmless fun Sunny, harmless fun" the other said good naturally. The golden mech moved dangerously close, leaning against the crates.

Jessica was a little startled by the sudden proximity and scattered away, but unfortunately in her haste she forgot about the abandoned bolt and accidentally pushed it over the edge.

The result was a ressonating "Ping!"

The two mechs stopped what they were doing, looking around alert.  
>"Did you hear that?"<p>

"Yeah... I might have knocked something over just now" Sunny said looking down at the boxes, he spotted the bolt and leaned down to pick it up. "There it is, just a lame old bolt" he said looking over the object in his hand and then raising his head to turn around only to stop when his optics caught sight of the small organic pressing herself back against the crate, frozen in fear.

"Umm..." he stared, his optics blinking twice. "Sideswipe? Come over here..."

Sideswipe frowned upon his brother's hushed voice and leaned down next to him.

"What is it? Is there a petrorat in there or-" he stopped short upon spotting the small human. "Oh..."

the three stared in silence for long stretched moments. Maybe if she didn't move they would think she was dead or was a statue? "Hello? What are you doing here little girl? We thought you were at the medbay..." The red one spoke, moving to try and reach in for her.

The girl seemed to snap out of her fear at that and attempted to swat at it.

"Hey hey! No swatting me! And for that matter no biting either" he said grabbing roughly the small human and earning a yelp from her as he pulled her out from her hideout.

"Let me go!" she protested, trying to kick and punch at the metal hands, only succeeding in hurting herself. The mech turned her over, hanging her by her shirt.

"Frazzled little thing isn't she?" Sideswipe asked the other. The golden mech prodded a finger on her side, as if testing it.

"Think we should take it to Ratchet?"

"I said LET GO OF ME!"

"Maybe... he'll have our afts if we don't..." Sideswipe pondered, the two completely ignoring her.

"How did it get out anyway?" The golden mech wondered.

"Let go or I'll...I'll scream!" at that the two looked at her unimpressed, suppressing snorts.

"How very threatening." Sunstreaker remarked Dryly.

"Go ahead and scream all you want, we're still taking you to Ratchet."

The girl fought desperately to try and take some hit to his hand, Sideswipe watched for a moment before his trademark devilish grin spread in his lips.

"Sides...?" Suntreaker asked wearily.

"Here, hold her" he said tossing the human to the other without much care. Sunstreaker roughly held her by the shirt like his brother had been doing.

"What are you planning?"Sideswipe was carefully opening his box, being careful with the spring that would spill out its contents.

"Making this prank a lot more interesting."

Jessica's eyes widened, realizing what he meant. He was going to close her in that box? No! No way!

As the red mech made to grab her again she took in as much air as she could, and _screamed_.

* * *

><p>Jazz and Prowl had been peacefully asleep when the most piercing noise assaulted them.<p>

Both jumped in their berths, grabbing at their audios painfully, it was a very high pitch and loud noise, it was resonating everywhere, multiplying against whatever it hit.

They quickly shut off their audios, looking at each other startled, Ratchet had ran out of his office in the same predicament, rubbing at the side of his helm where his audios were at.

'Jazz!' Prowl called looking at his mate, a rare expression of fear on him ' where's Lyric?'

Jazz only realized then, he wasn't holding the human, he quickly looked around himself on the berth, afraid that he might have squished her, but no sign of her.

'she's not 'ere!' he said in fear.

They both looked to Ratchet about to use their comm links to question if he took her when they noticed he was glaring at a mop, holding the open button for the door.

Fear clutched at their sparks, both forcing themselves out of their berths.

-Now wait just a minute you two! - Ratchet comm linked them, glaring at the two mechs. They might have been in good enough condition to walk, but that didn't mean they should!

-Ratch, Lyric's missin'!- Jazz commed back distressed.

-Yes I noticed that much!- he said pointing to the mop.

-We need to search for her – Prowl said, ready to move out, despite his unbalance, being without his doorwings could severely affect his notion of weight and movement.

-Oh no you don't! You're not ready to leave the medbay!- the medic protested, standing in their way. The glares both shot him however made his spark waver in doubt, on the other hand...sometimes it was best not to stop worrying parents from protecting their sparklings...it could get rather ugly. - at least not without me- he grumbled, letting them past reluctantly..

It didn't take them long before they received distressed calls from Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, it was hard to tell what they were saying, but they only needed the word human to understand what they needed to know.

Prowl inwardly growled, fearful of what those two hellions had done to his creating. The only thing keeping him from full out expressing his rage at them were Jazz's calm feelings over their bond.

They arrived to the storage, finding Sideswipe and Sunstreaker moving around crates, trying to reach out into their gaps for something.

- What the pit do you two slaggers think you're doing?- Ratchet bellowed over the comm, startling the two Lamborghinis.

- We found her hiding here, when we tried grabbing her she started screaming.- Sideswipe said, keeping out the part that what probably led her to do so was actually the fact that he was about to stuff her in a prank box.

- Where is she?- Prowl asked, keeping his tone rispid and harsh, making the two mechs shudder, he wasn't usually this angry with them.

- Hid somewhere behind the crates – Sunstreaker said moving away from the ones he was looking past, rubbing at his sore audial fins, he had nearly passed out when the stupid thing started screaming.

Jazz promptly hurried to the crates, pushing Sideswipe out of his way.

"Jessica, sweetspark, its Jazz, its all'righ, come out, these two idiots won't hurt ya ah promise" he called out to the little human, not seeing it anywhere between the gaps.

In a trusting move he turned back on his audios, hearing no screaming.

- You two bulkheads should have known better!- Ratchet scolded, the twins not looking very phased.

Prowl then took in the box that Sideswipe still held in his hand, it wasn't hard to put two and two together.

- Sideswipe...by any chance were you PLANNING on closing my creation into that box?- Sideswipe did a double take, unsure if he heard right.

-Creation?- Sunstreaker spoke his thoughts.

-Yes, that small human is my creation. The one you just tried stuffing into that prank box- he said glaring at the two.

-Um...how...-?-

-The both of you, head to the brig, I will decide your punishment later, after this matter is resolved. - he said sternly.

-And that means you'll spend your time there until he's fully recovered, which isn't for a few days – Ratchet sneered at the two, satisfied with their affronted expressions.

-But-

- Do not make me expand that time- Prowl warned.

Both mouths shut firmly closed, the two bowing their heads and hurrying out before Prowl changed his mind.

"C'mon sweetspark..." Jazz coaxed, trying to push the crates away and give him space to fit in. Ratchet stopped him however, he didn't want them making any strain. "Ya need ta come out...ya can't hide foreva." he said, turning on his infrared to search for her, it wasn't too hard as she was the only warm thing in those many materials. She was pressed against a wall, her spark surprisingly calm. He moved around to the closest way he could get to her. "What in Primus possessed ya ta try and sneak out?" he wondered out loud "ya could have been stepped on." he said jumping on top of the crates and moving around.

Prowl was moving around the crates, watching his mate moving around and following his direction. Ratchet stood back by the gaps in case she decide to make a run for the door.

"S'allrigh'... Sunny an' Sides ain't gonna hurtcha." he reached down for the human, but she moved away from the hand and out of his reach. She was startled however when another pair of hands came from the gap behind her, catching her by surprise and pulling her out of there. She struggled, again kicking and punching the hand to try and get free.

"Please, calm yourself..." Prowl attempted, but it was as if she weren't hearing him.

Jazz jumped down from the crates, joining the other two, Ratchet was scanning the small human, satisfied that she hadn't been harmed much other than a sore looking knee.

Jazz made to hold her hands still, careful not to apply too much strength while Prowl held her firmly.

This forced her to fix her gaze on him, as he was directly in front of her, he gave a reassuring smile, hoping that would be enough.

She quieted down some at least.

"That's it, good girl." he said gently, earning himself a hard glare.

"I'm NOT a pet!"

"No one said you were" Prowl input worriedly "Or did the twins...?"

Jazz preferred not to dig into that, it would likely only distress their creation further.

"Ya all righ? Did they hurtcha?" the girl glared, but looked away.

"No, they tried stuffing me in a box."

Ratchet held back his need for cursing in favor of not making the situation any harder.

"Then how come your knee is sore?" He inquired pointing at said knee.

"They dropped me when I screamed." she moved the leg as far away from Ratchet's finger as she possibly could.

"You're lucky you didn't break it then" He said with an angry huff.

"Sweetspark what possessed ya ta leave the medbay?" Jazz asked again. She could only guess sweetspark was the same as sweetheart, and frowned a little at that, she didn't answer, it should be clear enough.

"You were attempting to escape." Prowl stated the obvious, making the girl grit her teeth, avoiding meeting anyone's gaze. "I thought as much." he shifted her in his hands, allowing her to sit down on his palm, and giving her limited freedom. Should she attempt to make a jump for it, the three mechs were ready for it.

"But-But why? Ah mean, everythin' was goin' fine!" Jazz protested following after his mate as they left the storage, Ratchet quick in toe.

"Perhaps words are not enough proof, I would have a hard time to believe in things myself were I in her position." He pointed out, making his way back to the medbay, ignoring the mild sting of his injuries.

"That can be easily fixed." Ratchet input. Prowl instinctively pulled the girl closer to his chassis as if shielding her from the medic.

"Migh' be a lil' too strong so soon dun ya think Ratch?" Jazz said meekly, keeping his visor trained on the human.

"Like prowl said, words aren't enough proof."

Once they arrived at the medbay, Ratchet had proceeded to kick both TIC and SIC's afts back to their berths, and led the young human to one of his scanners, setting her down.  
>"There you go, this here is an inner scan of your body." he said turning on a screen connected to the panel in front of her. What resembled a metallic skeleton came into view. "It shows whats inside it more specifically."<p>

Jessica lifted her arm, then the other, made a serious of strange movements to assure herself that she was seeing right and not being tricked, then gulped dry. It mimicked her movements exactly.

Ratchet then proceeded to turn it off, giving the girl a moment while he set up another few files into a different screen.

Once he went over everything meticulously, he came back and picked her up, placing her on an empty berth to watch.  
>A more detailed schematic of her body appeared.<p>

"Your body was built 17 years ago when you were just born, to mimic the human's growth however we left a lot of space inside what you can call the skin layer, these small gadgets over here" he said pointing at said mechanics "are what kept the skin layer stretching in an appropriate manner.

When it would be time, we would come without your knowing and upgraded your body as small as we were able."

She watched in confusion, not because it was overly complex to look at, but because she didn't know what to make of herself, or what to think of it.

"We took all the measures we could to hide you. Now however I guess that's pointless." he snorted, looking displeased with that. "I suppose Prime will be making arrangements for you to stay, which means we'll have to start building you a real new body."

"W-what do you mean?" the girl asked, her voice trembling slightly, he smiled down at her, a rare smile that felt all too awkward in his faceplates.

"Well, we can't exactly have a midget of your size crawling around and getting stepped on now can we?"

Her eyes widened at that, shock hitting full force again. "Y-you mean..."

"Oh yes, we'll be making you a body of approximately our sizes. Depending on what your spark requires. I'll have to do a few more scans to know that.

She nodded numbly, staring back at the screen, everything was changing, and there was nothing she could do about it.


	10. Forgive and Forget

sorry, it took me forever and more to get this chapter done, I was really stuck at one point, but now its here finally 8 D enjoy! Reviews are apreciated to get my rusty aft back in gear.

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><p>The next few days were driving Jazz literally up the wall, his and Prowl's recovery was doing well yes, they hardly felt any pain left, Ratchet just wanted to make sure they were fully fixed, and secretly he was also giving them an excuse to hang around Jessica a little more.<p>

However, the plan wasn't doing so well...Prowl was...his typical anti – social self, and Jessica...well, he still couldn't tell if she had taken the shock well. The girl wouldn't speak much, most of the time she only spoke to Ratchet, despite Jazz's countless attempts to strike a conversation, she would always manage to end it short and give him small little replies. The bare minimum.

Prowl had told him time and time again not to push it, that she needed her own time and space, but it did little to settle the saboteur's worry.

His little sparkling would barely eat anything offered, would only sleep when she thought no one was awake or watching, and had refrained from giving Ratchet any opinions on what she would like her body to look like when they had their little upgrading sessions.  
>Of course they hadn't changed anything in the body she currently resided in, she wasn't due to upgrading for another two years. But it would have helped if she could put in her preferences here and there...otherwise she would end up looking like a droid and Jazz would NOT have that! Oh no sir!<p>

Of course it was easier said than done, here he was, attempting again to strike a conversation, only to have the girl sitting on his lap, completely ignoring him in favor of a mini version of a datapad Ratchet had given her to read.

"Did ya hear what ah said Jessie?"

The girl in question turned her head around to look up at him dryly, a complete tone of disinterest in her voice.

"Huh? Sorry no, I was too busy reading this." she said, lightly waving her datapad. Of course he knew that meant " how can anyone possibly ignore your voice? But I'll try anyway".

He sighed, wrapping his hands around her body and pulling her back and away from the datapad, earning himself a feeble protest, she had already learned that it was pointless to fight metallic hands of roughly her size.

"Hey! Whats the big idea?" she shouted, being leaned against his...she guessed his abdominal plating.

"Ah'm makin' sure ya listen' this time aroun'." He said, patience wearing thin, she glared up at him, but made no attempts to move away, signaling that she was listening. "Ah was askin' if ya wanted meh ta show ya aroun' base, yer gonna end up meetin' everyone sooner or later, might as well start learnin' now righ'?"

"Why would I want to meet anyone around here?" she said grumpily, not really expecting an answer.

"Well, ya are gonna be livin'ere, ya migh' make friends." He suggested temptingly. Unfortunately the girl only snorted, looking pointedly away with stubborn pride.

"I didn't have any friends as a human, and I'm certain I'm not getting any as one of you"

"Dun know till ya try though righ'?" he said flashing a smirk, knowing she wasn't refusing to meet the others. "I'll ask Ratch if ah can take ya." He said picking up her datapad and setting it on his table, then pushing the thermal blanket off his legs and hopping off the berth, keeping the girl safely in his hands.

Prowl had not looked up from his own datapad during the whole exchange, he was passively reading reports, not wanting them to pile up in his office.

"Please do make sure that another 'twin incident' doesn't happen Jazz." He said in his neutral tone, his body not moving much more than his lips for speaking.

"Gotcha Prowler, ain't lettin' anyone prank Jessie while ah'm on the job!" the saboteur said, his grin growing wider.

Jessica watched their surroundings as Jazz insisted carrying her. His conversation with Ratchet had been brief, she didn't really pay it much notice, she didn't pay _anything_ much notice actually.  
>Inwardly she was just waiting for it all to pass, like when someone simply tunes their mind out when hearing a boring lecture.<p>

"An this 'ere is the recroom." Jazz interrupted her thoughts, stopping in front of a door, so far they had not entered anywhere.  
>"Recroom?" she repeated absentmindedly, looking dully at the door.<p>

"Yep" He said pressing a button, glowing it to green. "Its where we hang aroun' on breaks, refuel, chat an' all tha'" Jazz said as the doors hissed, he entered the room, and was not surprised by the number of heads turning their way, optics looking him over surprised.  
>He had to adjust his hold on the girl because she was backing away and trying to hide.<p>

"Jazz!" someone shouted, sounding happy. "Its good to see you out of the medbay!"

"Heya Hound, 'sup?"

The saboteur had turned to a particular group of three mechs, a white and blue, a green and one with a mixture of blues yellows and red trims. They had apparently been going at a game of cards.

"How are you feeling?" the blue and white asked, his voice sounding a bit more snobbish and maybe a tinge British.

"Much better thanks, 'Raj." the saboteur answered kindly taking a seat.

"How's Prowl doing?" the multi coloured one asked, he looked remarkably like the Datsun alt mode Prowl had taken, in fact, they were almost the same, the three of them were holding what looked like gaming cards, but their glyphs and drawings were completely foreign to her.

"He's doin' fine." Jazz said, setting down the human on the table and looking curiously to his cards. "Had his doorwings reinstalled yesterday, he's eager ta get back ta work."

The other snorted, rolling his optics.

"It figures he would, I hope Ratchet keeps him on leave, he'll crash once he sees the load of work left for him at the office."

Jessica inched against Jazz's hands, trying to hide away from Mirage's and Hound's inquiring looks.  
>"Tha' bad huh?" the saboteur asked distractedly.<p>

"I may be his second but I'm certainly not as efficient or fast with paper work, nor am I an extreme workaholic" the mech answered pointedly, setting down his next card.

"'course smokey, o'course" Jazz said with a wide grin.

"Um...Jazz? Is that...?" the green mech asked, the one Jazz had called Hound. He was staring at her in awe, as if he resisting the urge to touch her out of curiosity.

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry, this'ere's the gal me an' Prowl have been watchin' lately." he said tapping her head with a finger. She would have protested against the gesture but she was far too busy keeping her eyes on the other two, now three with 'smokey'.

"You mean she's your..." Mirage said, a strange look of disgust hitting his features, Hound however gave him a patronizing look.  
>"Yep, say hi Jessie, these guys are Mirage" he pointed to the white and blue snob " Hound" he hand drifted to gesture for the green mech "an' yer uncle Smokescreen" again the hand shifted to gesture towards the mech next to them.<br>Uncle? So...was that why he was practically a copy of prowl? She could only assume as much...

"H-hello" she said, managing to keep a neutral tone, despite her hesitance and body language showing her fear.  
>"Huh...she sounds like Prowl" Smokescreen spoke up, pushing one of Jazz's hands away from her so he could get a better look. He set down his cards, making sure one couldn't see the other side of them before he could give her his complete attention.<p>

"Yeh, ah guess she does." Jazz said with amusement, watching his creation and smokescreen enter a death match of poker faces.

"So...how are you taking all this in little Lyric?" Hound asked curiously, inching forwards a little, unable to contain himself.

"Lyric?" the girl asked, not breaking eye contact with the blue and yellow cybertronian.  
>"Yer original name" Jazz explained poking her side with a finger, testing how long she could hold up the face.<p>

"Great, I don't even have a real name? Is nothing I've lived so far been real?" she said refraining from scowling in favor of beating Smokescreen at their unspoken game.

"Ungrateful as well I see" Mirage said with distaste, receiving a jab from his mate.  
>"Mirage...that's not something you should say! Think of it for a bit, she just lost everything."<p>

"Yes, I'm certain you'll remember we've all been through that phase."

"Yes I do, and if I recall correctly you were one of the mechs that suffered the most intense mopenia"

"Mopenia?" the other quirked an optic ridge, staring at smokescreen oddly.

"Yes, you kept moping and sulking for the longest time."

"I most certainly did not!" the other said indignantly, earning himself snickers from the others, smokescreen finally loosing the game to join them.

"Oh yes you did, I had to give you psychiatrist sessions for weeks!"

"Only because Ratchet forced you to!" the blue and white mech scoffed, his pride clearly taking a role in his reaction.

"And rightly so." Smokescreen said proudly taking a sip of one of their pink cubes.  
>"Anyway, whats the plan now Jazz? I mean her safety is compromised now right? Soundwave must have caught her signature at the zoo...it doesn't matter if you even give her another human body...he'd still find her now."<p>

Jazz's faceplates set into a deep frown, looking down at his creation, who in turn was watching the mechs quietly, analyzing her situation. She was a smart one, that much he knew, like Prowl, she wouldn't take action or make statements before she was certain of her situation, which wasn't the case right now.

"We're not sure mech, Ah mean, yeah takin'er back to the humans is outta the question, at least not as one of them" he agreed, feeling his spark clench when she gave him a pained look, whatever hopes she had had of doing so had just been crushed. "Ratch's workin' on getting' er a body. It'll take a while still but we're gettin' there." he said rubbing a finger to her back, which she eyed suspiciously.

The others observed the exchange with interest, noting on Jazz's look of a puppy who had just been kicked.

"I still have not agreed to that" she said bitterly.

"Sweetspark...-"

"DON'T call me that." she cut in angrily, failing to keep her cool.

"Righ' Sorry, but ya gotta understand...yer gonna have ta live'ere with us from now on...we can't have ya wonderin' around with that body...its dangerous." The girl merely harrumphed at that, straightening her back and pointedly not looking at him.

"Feisty one isn't she?" Smokescreen pointed out, his optics taking in all the info she was giving away about herself. "Must have gotten that from Prowl."

"Ah think it might be a mixture..." Jazz said as the girl kept shooting him glares, she didn't refute however, which meant that she understood the situation. To be honest, Jazz had expected her to break down, to cry, to scream out in protest, but no, she just resumed to her silent glaring and distancing herself. He would have taken the tears anytime over this.

He was about to talk her out of it, to find any way he could to cheer her up, but another voice interrupted his own, stilling his thoughts.

"Jazz!Oh my Primus you're finally out of the medbay! I missed you so much! I mean not that the others didn't miss you of course, everyone does, especially you since you're always so friendly to everyone but its been so long I thought you would never get out! Is Prowl out too? Oh I hope he didn't go straight to his office and work, he really won't like all the datapads still there and-"

"Easy Bluestreak" Jazz said with a chuckle, looking behind him to the mech that had friendly wrapped his arms around his neck in a hug. "Ah'm fine, sorry ah worried ya, Prowl's still in the medbay and Ah'll be rejoinin'im soon, ah just came ta show Jessie aroun' the base."

"Jessie?" The young mech questioned, his doorwings tipping upwards slightly in curiosity.  
>With that Jazz motioned for the young girl in front of him, who was looking strangely at the new praxian.<p>

Without asking for her permission Jazz gathered her in his hands and lifted her up so that she and Bluestreak could take in each others appearances better. "Jessie, meet yer cousin Bluestreak. Bluestreak, yer cousin' Jessica."

"I thought her name was Lyric?" The grey mech inquired, his roundish optics going wide in amazement as he took in the girl's appearance.

"'Tis, she's just more comfortable with her old name." the saboteur explained.  
>"Why am I called THAT?" she nearly spat, looking grumpily at her feet.<p>

Jazz frowned a little, this was not turning out like he'd hoped...she needed someone to cheer her up, and even though he was trying, and he was REALLY trying, it was becoming clear he was just not the bot for that at the moment.  
>"Have you shown her around the base Jazz?" Bluestreak's voice interrupted his thoughts.<p>

As soon as he said that an idea popped in Jazz's mind, the mech looking carefully towards the grey datsun behind him.  
>"Some of it...say Blue...ya wouldn't happen ta be free wouldja?"<p>

Bluetreak's optics brightned a little, as if he had caught on to Jazz's mischievous tone.

"My shifts are done for the day. Unless Smokescreen has anything for me to do that is." he said looking at the other who merely waved him off, dismissing such a thought.

"Well, you're better than anyone 'round'ere ta give a good tour of the base...think ya could finish it up for meh?"

Bluestreak's optics shone even brighter, widening like a puppy that had just seen his favorite treat offered to him.

"A-are you sure? I mean...shouldn't it be you that-"

"I'm certain you'll take good care of Jessie for meh." The saboteur said scooping up the young human without waiting for her to catch on and promptly dumping her in Bluestreak's nervous hands.

"Hey! Whats the big idea!" she protested, getting back her balance from being switched to place.

"Blue's a good mech, you'll be fine with'im." Jazz said, looking absolutely unconcerned. "Bring'er back in about two earth hours max all righ'?"

"Yes! I'll take good care of her!" the mech said determined to keep his word. In his hands Jessica rolled her eyes.

* * *

><p>Turned out, Bluestreak wasn't as bad as she thought, although he was definitely and literally a motormouth.<p>

However she could tell his intentions were true, and he had a good heart...spark...whichever.

"And this is the crew's quarters area." he said as they entered another long hall, full of doors. "its where most of the crew has their recharging quarters, save for higher ranked officers." he explained. She merely nodded, a confirmation that she was listening.

Bluestreak paused his blabbering for a moment, coming across the hall, his doorwings were flicking behind him nervously.

Finally he couldn't take it anymore.

"You're not happy about coming are you?" he said softly, making her glance back at him with a blank expression.

"No." she said honestly.

"I can understand that...sort of..."he said earning a snort from her as she looked back forwards.  
>"How can ANY of you possibly understand me? You're not the one in my position."<p>

"I-I know...but I know that you're going through a big change, you're loosing everything, and no matter what you do you can't do anything to stop it." she winced at those words. "I was the same...when the war broke out I mean..."

"War?" Jazz and Prowl still hadn't filled her in in a lot of things, so far they hadn't mentioned anything about a war, she knew they had a conflict with another faction, but not an all out war.

"Its...complicated a lot has happened...but...well...when it happened...it hit so hard...my entire home town was eradicated by the decepticons." he explained, passing a finger on her back, she looked back, her expression a little softer. "I remember everything...the sounds of thousands of jets above...the whistle of the bombs...the screams...the explosions..." her features practically melted to one of sadness and understanding, she turned around to look at him in the optics, he couldn't look up to her eyes.  
>"I'm sorry..."<br>"I..." he took a deep intake "I was the only survivor." he said quietly.

Her hand rested on his lifted thumb, giving it a small comfort.

"Bluestreak...I'm sorry. I didn't know...I..."  
>"Its okay" he said, forcing a smile over his features."its been a long time since that's happened, and I still got family with me, and we're here, we're together, and you're back."<p>

she looked down at that, looking for the world like she would crumble at the lightest breath of air.

"That...I shouldn't make any difference here...I mean..."  
>He moved in with a digit, pushing her long hair away from covering her face.<p>

"You make all the difference. Primus if you'd known how much Jazz and Prowl regretted sending you out there.." he said, forgetting that they had stopped in the middle of the empty hall. "you were their world. You should have seen how happy they were when they learned they were going to have you...and then when they learned that you were a femme.." he trailed off, his optics dimned. "I won't lie, they were terrified, they'd do anything, even if it meant they could never talk to you, never touch you, never interfere with your life. They would take all their free time, every time they could to go see you in disguise."

"Some good that did..." she said bitterly, pulling her knees close to her chest, Bluestreak recommencing their trek.  
>"Yeah...there were times they argued a lot about it...they wanted to get you back so badly...especially when..." he hesitated, the girl looking up questioningly. "when they learned how your adoptive parents were treating you."<p>

her eyes darted sideways, eminently her body had tensed up.

"They know that much huh?"

"Yes. And they weren't pleased at all...we've sent them several warnings before whenever things got too bad at your home."  
>"So they KNEW? They bloody KNEW?" she said with outrage, her head snapping up, making bluestreak wince.<p>

"there were signs...how could they not know?" he tried to explain "and then there was everything else...trust me...if it weren't for the bigger threat of the Decepticons Jazz and Prowl would have taken you back in a sparkbeat. Slag me and Bluestreak would have done it too. Any of us would."

Her fists had balled up, the girl seething angrily.

"But they were SO proud when they saw how you were dealing with things...especially with the bullies-"

"Wait. Even THAT?" she said exasperated, bluestreak nodded as she pulled at her hair, thunking her head against his thumb.

"The way you avoided fighting back, trying to keep things peaceful, despite what they were doing to you, the way you only fought back if someone else was involved. You're a true autobot at spark" he said giving her head a slight nudge with his thumb "and they couldn't be prouder."

"What now then? What am I supposed to DO?" she grit her teeth, her voice sounded pained "where am I supposed to go? What am I going to do about myself? I can't follow ANY of my previous plans towards my life, I...I have NO control over MY life!"

"You have some control..."he tried to calm her down "the rules have simply changed...haven't Jazz and Prowl talked about this to you?"

"N-no..." she said, looking away guiltily. "I...I've been kind of too mad to give them much attention."

He nodded in understanding at this.

"Why are you mad though? I thought you'd be happy... I mean you're free of all of that, your adoptive parents...the bullies...all of that."

"also rid of my freedom, my dreams, all the things I've done in the past Bluestreak...none of it matters anymore!"

"You still have your freedom...its just not as wide as before...look...maybe you should have a talk with them... I can understand how you would want nothing to do with them right now...but they love you, and they want to make things better, give them at least a chance to speak."

"How can I? How can I forgive them Bluestreak? I mean I UNDERSTAND why they did it, but...that doesn't make it any easier to forgive." she bit her bottom lip, her eyes shifting trying to recognize the hall they were in now, it was vaguely familiar. "I can't even get past the fact that they're giant robots from SPACE. From SPACE! " she repeated for emphasis. "I can't believe I am!"

"It takes time." he said in understanding. "And...if its any sort of advice, from my experience, I've learned that sometimes, to forgive, you need to forget. You need to take a leap of faith."

she lowered her head at this, giving a small nod as they entered back in the medbay.


	11. What ifs

After her conversation with Bluestreak, Jessica had kept things even more to herself, not out of spite of anger, but because there was just so much going on in her mind, and she was trying to figure everything out.

Other mechs had come by to present themselves and give their welcome backs, but she had hardly registered any of it.

Jazz seemed to have finally taken the hint that she needed her time and space and let her be, not pushing as many conversation attempts. Either Bluestreak had hinted him or he had figured it out by himself.

How was she to accept this? She knew better...she understood the situation, at least she thought she did.

But accepting it was just so out of her reach.

She sighed for the millionth time, perched on Jazz's knee, elbows over her knees and head resting on top of them.

The mech behind her was quietly reading something, bobbing his head slightly at no doubt some sort of music he was listening inside that helm of his.

Prowl had not changed his behavior at all, staying reserved to himself, leaving her alone as long as she needed. He wouldn't even attempt to spy a few looks at her, his focus had been entirely on the thousands of datapads they brought him daily, keeping him occupied.

She sighed again, her mind going back to her current problem. Idly she looked back down to the sketchbook tucked in between her legs and her chest, a whole bunch of nonsense scribbles and curves all over the page, her thoughts were too puzzled for her to draw anything decent, but her hand had that distinct need to just register something on the paper, so that was what she had done.

Decision wise, she knew she was no where near making one. In fact, if anything, she was even more at a loss than she had been at the beginning. Bluestreak's revelation of her supposed to be REAL parents's feelings only made things harder to understand.

She knew she had to have a serious conversation with them, but neither did she know how to start one, or when to start one.

It just felt wrong to do so right now, there were too many things she still had to think about, she had to know where she stood, what she wanted to do with herself.

She needed to talk to someone, someone not cybertronian, not from the army, someone she could trust.

And she knew who she wanted to talk to, but she was too afraid of suggesting it, these guys wanted seclusion after all, and she wasn't sure just how far that meant for her... but god damn it, all she needed was a few hours on the internet.

She sighed dejectedly, looking across the now memorized medbay, boredom was slowly grating at her nerves.

Jazz had finally stopped listening to his music, his visored face looking up from his datapad at the small human look alike on his knee.

He wanted to reach out, to try and comfort her pitiful form, but he restrained himself.

Prowl wasn't the only one that kept telling him to give her her space, the others had pointed it out as well in private, and it was finally sinking in. Still it didn't help all the hurt he had to hide by doing so. His only comfort being Prowl's presence next to him, suffering as much as he was.

Said Praxian had not looked up, but his doorwings had twitched minutely, signaling his attention to the girl's misery. So far Lyric didn't seem to be able to read these things, small cybertronian indications of feelings or reactions, mostly the subtle ones.

She couldn't at all read doorwing language, even Bluestreak's who was more obvious about it. Only when it was an extreme reaction could she faintly understand it.

She also didn't seem to realize that the increase or decrease of one's optic light meant things as well, especially Jazz's visor since he didn't have the regular optic shape showing.

To top it off, so far they had been lucky. They were trying to compensate their absence in the command deck during recovery by having a great number of their work brought there, they had to discuss tactics, approaches, human alliances, review every single thing, make sure everything was taken care of before dispatching the reports to Prime.

They kept their discussions to their bond, not wanting to add the extra stress to the girl.

The decepticons had been quiet, they were preparing, you could almost taste the coming battle.

They now knew, and they would try an make a full scale attack to try and steal Lyric away from them.

The thing was that, since femmes had much more fertile sparks, the chance of getting a sparkling out of them was almost certain, and they could endure births a whole lot more than mechs. Which made for a very resourceful way of acquiring soldiers.

The mere thought of such fate gave them both chills up their spinal struts and their sparks burning in outrage.

They had to focus on getting everything ready, they had to prepare, they had to defend their base.

Worst of all, they had to prepare Lyric, they really needed to talk, but they didn't know how to start a conversation with her when she clearly needed her space and time.

Interrupting all three of their inner conflicts, Ratchet came out of his office, reading a datapad as he made his way over to them and grumbling something to himself.  
>As he approached he moved around Prowl's berth.<p>

"I need to check your readings" he said, automatically reaching the terminal's cables and taking Prowl's offered arm, opening the side panel and plugging him to the scanner, Prowl's vitals and status displayed on the screen. Ratchet gave a satisfied grunt then moved to do the same to Jazz, Lyric watched intently his every move, and would look at the terminal's display cluelessly.

"You're good to go" he finally said, snapping Jazz's arm panel closed without much finesse. "both of you. You're back to full health."

A certain dread filled Jessica at that, looking a little weary and uncertain at what that meant.

"Finally" Jazz said, flashing a grin of triumph. "was getting' sore from lyin'ere all the time" he said, stretching his arms as he sat up, Jessica having to grab onto his knee cap to secure herself with his movement, he reached over cupping her with his hands.

"But, I don't want you going to your offices today" Ratchet grouched, pointing an accusing finger at prowl as he gathered the datapads they had to work on. "You're off duty for the rest of the day unless something urgent comes up."

"Will do Ratch'" Jazz said cheerfully, standing next to Prowl as they were ready to leave.

"Thank you Ratchet, we will see you later."

Ratchet harrumphed at that "Bring Lyric back tomorrow, I still have a few more scans to run." they nodded at this and turned to leave out the doors.  
>Jessica remained silent, looking around herself uncertainly as they progressed.<p>

"It'll be good ta go back home at last" Jazz broke their silence, unable to take it. Their feet, despite their large size, padded lightly on the floor, not making that much sound at all.

"It will indeed" Prowl agreed, a small smile tugging at his usually expressionless faceplate. "Jessica, Jazz has not taken you to our quarters yet has he?"

The girl jumped a little at being referred to, looking up at him wearily.

"N-no, not really. I mean Bluestreak showed me the hall to it...but that is about it."

"Didn't feel right showin' it to ya while Prowler couldn't come." Jazz explained, lightly brushing the other's side with his hip.

"Hmm.." Prowl hummed in agreement. "Lets hope that Smokescreen managed to get the things I asked in time." he said

She didn't comment on that, there wasn't even a point in wondering about it, she'd know when they got there.

They stopped by a door, as regular as any other, entering a code that she made an effort to silently memorize and stepping into a darkened room. It only took a few seconds for lights to slowly light the room in a soft yellowish warm light.

It was pretty spacious, for a base's quarters that is, but then again she'd learned that the two were the second and third most important robots in that base, so it made a little sense that they'd have some privileges, plus this was probably two rooms put together.

It had its own furniture, making a small little living space with a couch, the biggest tv set she had ever seen and a fully integrated with equally large stereo system, separate from the obvious large berth for the two of them.

There was also a desk at one corner and a private dispenser at the other side. At the end there was another door she reasoned that it was probably a closet or something of the like. Maybe a bathroom, she frowned to herself, did robots even need bathrooms?

"Here we go, home sweet home" Jazz pronounced, sounding a little nervous, waiting for a reaction.

Realizing they were waiting for her to say something, she straightened her back, looking away. "Its all right."

their frames relaxed at that, as they stepped in more calmly.

For a moment it looked like they didn't quite know what to do with her, hesitating on where to put her down at, or if they should do so.

"Can I get down? Its been a while since I was allowed to walk on my own" she said, trying to keep her voice even.

"Righ' sorry." Jazz said, leaning down and letting her hop onto the floor.

"You are free to roam around and use the living area, but I'm afraid we will have to work for a while more today" Prowl said in a non too strict manner, yet still distant.

Jazz gave a sigh at that, he couldn't disagree, he knew they did have to work, and he knew how important it was.  
>"That's fine with me." the girl said in the same tone, moving off to the couch, looking around for a moment before cleverly finding a way to climb up onto it using the small table in front. She sat down, looking incredibly tiny in such a large furniture and took out her sketchbook and materials, immersing herself in her work.<p>

The two reluctantly returned to their work, Prowl taking the desk and their many, many reports, while Jazz took a second, more comfortable looking chair, resting his pedes up on the desk corner and picking a datapad of his own.

They spent the day in silence, only occasionally would Prowl and Jazz exchange words when one was done with a report or another.

Jessica spent her time equally quiet, focusing completely in her art, it was the only thing keeping her from the thoughts that had been plaguing her since she got there. It was her only comfort.

Suddenly, the dread alarm rang, a red light by the door flashing as it blared inside and outside of the room. Both mechs were instantly on their feet.

Jessica covered her ears, letting her sketchbook fall to the side and looked at the siren fearfully.  
>Please let it be the fire alarm she thought.<br>Prowl and Jazz were quickly on the move, taking out their weapons and readying themselves, heading for the door. Once there however they hesitated, stopping to look back.

"Stay here, do not dare to step outside of this room, we'll be back after a while" Prowl said with the firmest tone she had heard from him, his door wings were completely stiff, tense. "If anyone comes but us, hide. Stay hidden and wait for us. We will be back."

With that he stepped out, Jazz lingered a moment longer by the door, looking like he wanted to say something, his fists tightening. He gave up, and giving one last glance, walked out, locking the door.

* * *

><p>A few minutes passed, the alarm had stopped, but she could hear loud noises from outside, far away in the surface. Shooting and explosions, bellowing and screaming... it all felt surreal, as if it were a neighbor watching tv too loudly.<p>

She had long left the couch, and had hidden herself inside the overly large stereo system, she hoped it would be enough of a weird spot for no one to remember to look for her there.

Hours passed, all she dared to do was to wait and listen, listen to the endless sounds of battle. Eventually, she started getting tired, her eye lids threatening to fall, heavy on her eyes.

The only thing keeping her awake was the fear of what was happening.

What if they got hurt again? What if they ended up in the medbay again for days? What if they didn't live through that?

A sinking feeling fell on her soul as she considered this. If they died...she's never get a chance to meet her real parents.

_So?_ her inner voice questioned.

_So? Its important to me! I want to know where I came from! Who I am! _She mentally growled back at herself.

_Knowing your parents doesn't define who you are_ the other side of her argued.

_Maybe not, but I still want to know...I have a right to know. And I want to talk to them, I want to get to know them._

Dread filled her, she was afraid that chance might be taken from her, a flood of thoughts about what ifs coming to her mind, not doing any favors to her nerves.

After a bit, someone knocked at the door.

She went still, rigid, not daring to even breathe. That couldn't be Jazz and Prowl, neither of them needed to knock.

Another knock came, but no one spoke. Her eyes slit, that was even more suspicious.

After a moment she could hear someone press the buttons on the control panel outside, getting several denials, then an odd sound, as if something had been crushes. A voice was softly cursing outside, she couldn't make out what it said however, it was all in cybertronian.

Quietly, she prayed to whoever was up there to help her through this one, but that whoever it was, did not hear. The door opened with a hiss, and someone came in.

she didn't dare look, she could only listen from her hiding place.

Light footsteps moved forwards, they stopped at one point, the mech likely scanning the room.  
>"I know you're here...come out come out you little pest." the voice was foreign, she didn't know this one, he was definitely, most certainly not one of the autobots she met. "Don't make this harder on both of us." the mech spoke, a purr leaving his engine.<p>

Wait, purring? Urgh...that...that was sick.

"Ah...there you are" her heart clenched, fear spreading like flame. H-how? How had he found her? Footsteps approached, she tried not to move, hoping it was all a bluff, hoping he was just trying to get her to give a sign.

He wasn't.

* * *

><p>Prowl was directing the lines like he'd never done before, trying his best to push the enemy back, directing the soldiers per Prime's orders. Jazz's team had gone ahead, the front line being led by Ironhide. Everyone was giving it their all, they all knew what this was about, no one was about to hand it over.<p>

The battle had stretched for over four hours now, it was taking too long. Mechs were going down, It had to be the longest time megatron had stood his ground with the few mechs either side had.  
>Finally, those blessed words could be heard over the battle noise.<br>"Decepticons! Fall Back!"

Even so the autobots did not relent, shooting repeatedly at their retreating forms in the sky.

For a long stretched moment they stood there watching in the remains of battle, the only ones moving being Ratchet and his team, taking in the wounded in a hurry.  
>When they started moving back inside, Jazz ran up to him, resting a hand on his arm comfortingly, checking his mate for any wounds, Prowl instinctively did the same, neither showing it off too obviously.<br>"We better get back, Lyric must be pretty scared by now" Jazz spoke, his lip plates set in a firm thin line.

Prowl nodded quietly, following after him.

-Jazz! Prowl! We have a situation!- Their commlinks blared to life, giving them RedAlert's here, what is it Red Alert?- the winged mech said tiredly as they made their way across the halls.

-your quarters have been broken into. Did you have anything important in there?- the mech said, slightly panicked.

Both mechs froze, looking at each other with widened optics, without even bothering to answer the security officer the ran, ran as fast as they could, the door was open, their security panel had quickly been hacked into.

"Lyric!" They burst into the darkened quarters.

"Jessica, its all right to come out." Prowl spoke, stepping inside, Jazz following him in closely. His mate gasped, crashing against his back. The panic In his spark quickly infected Prowl's.

He turned to look at where he was looking. His spark sank with the same kind of panic.

There on the floor, between the tv and the small table, was Lyric's human body, eyes open wide and staring at the ceiling ghostly, her long hair spread beneath her in a pool, a mixture of energon and the fake blood of her body, a gaping hole in her chest.


	12. so close

Thank you all for the lovely updates and reviews, this was done in a bit of a rush but I hope you can still enjoy it :)

* * *

><p>Jazz was pacing back and forth, thoroughly making a trench on the floor and growling to himself in impatience. Prowl stood not too far from him, completely still and impassive, anyone that would look into his optics would shiver in fear.<p>

No one but Prime dared speak to them, they were furious, beyond furious. They were creators whose child had just been taken by their worst enemy, and worst of all, they knew what would be done to her if they didn't hurry and rescue her.

The news about young Lyric's fate had been a shock to all, they were so certain they had protected their base from infiltration.

The only con on earth that had any skills in that area – soundwave- had been in battle, they had kept their optics on him just in case of this particular possibility.

Yet no one could deny the gaping hole on Lyric's old body: her spark chamber had been taken.

They'd been spending the last two hours, feverishly working on following the Decepticon's last retreat, trying to pin them down. Time was short, Lyric's spark could survive as long as it remained in its spark chamber, the cons needed her alive so they had no doubt that she would live.

The problem was what they would do to her once they got her a new and proper body, which no doubt they had spent their ominous weeks of absence working on.

The spark needed to be calm in order to achieve a safe transference, and according to Ratchet's reports, it would still take time for her to properly adjust to a new body.

Of course that wasn't an insurance, as in the past decepticons rarely ever showed patience in their 'breeders'.

The mere word sent a chill down Prime's spinal strut, his own spark raging inside him in protest, he kept his cool however, he had to keep his cool. His soldiers needed him as such, especially now that both his second and third were so frazzled.  
>Jazz had frantically hacked their own door security, attempting to recognize who had come in, only so he could have revenge on the one who did.<p>

Yes, Sideways had better stay clear of his path if he wished to live. Prime had no doubt that even if he ordered it, neither he or Prowl would stop to spare him.

"Sir! We got somethin'!" Blasters voice spoke up from his terminal, getting the Prime's attention.

"Report." He said calming as the two parents went strictly still, looking up at them intently.

"Sir, we have a message from the humans, urgent, one of their scientific power facilities is under attack, they see no one, but they're loosin' power fast." The Cassette deck said.

"That could be them, focus on that, I want everyone working on it. I'll assemble a team and go ahead to investigate."

"Yes sir."Blaster said dutifully, returning to his monitor.

Prime returned to his gaze to the rest of the room, everyone was staring at him intently, waiting for hours.

"Prowl, assemble the team, have everyone be at the hangar in 5 kliks tops." he ordered before moving past them.

"Already on it Prime." the tactician said, unusually cold.

Soon Prime found himself and his team driving at full speed, the dust from the road flying past his tires. The plan was simple, Jazz would go ahead with his infiltration team, hoping to regain Lyric's spark without too much conflict, Prime was weary about sending him out but Jazz was the best they had for the job, and despite it being so personal, he had the most motivation to do it right.

He and Prowl's team would focus on the main front of the battle, distracting and keeping the decepticons busy.

They were almost to the energy facility when they received a comm from Blaster again.

-Prime! The cons made an appearance, the humans report they're getting ready for ya.-

-Roger that Blaster, keep up the good work.- Prime responded.

"Autobots..." he bellowed to the mechs behind him, just as he could see the seekers fly into the sky "engage!"

The seekers came first, raining fire on them as they tried to shoot back and make the rest of the way there on pedes.

"Come for your little pet Autobots?" Starscream screeched from above, trading fire and diving between shots with the ability only a seeker could possibly execute. "Well too BAD! She's ours now! We're not about to hand over such a prize! Our army shall increase in numbers like you've never known! You'll be outnumbered! Outranked! Out-" a shot interrupted him, piercing straight through his wing and spreading acid all over it. He screeched in a mixture of horror and pain, he wobbled in the air, he couldn't keep his flight straight and was careening to the floor.

Prowl aimed for a second shot, next time, he'd make sure it was the head. Only this time Skywarp skydived to his commander's rescue, warping just as he got to him and successfully evading the shot.

Prowl hissed, barring his denta in anger.

's'allright Prowler, focus, we gotta keep movin' ' Jazz reminded him over their bond, giving him as much patience as he could, which wasn't much. Their sparks were giving flips of worry, Lyric was right ahead...they just needed a few more kliks...

* * *

><p>Jessica...Lyric...she didn't quite know what to call herself anymore...she didn't feel herself, she didn't feel her body, nothing moved, nothing had anything physical, she didn't understand. Her memories were faded, she couldn't for the life of her remember anything clearly, nothing, just big blurrs of light in her mind. If she still had a mind.<p>

She couldn't hear anything either, but she could sense...some kind of something, something like a presence, a force...somewhere nearby, she couldn't make it out, she didn't understand any of it.

All she could tell was that she was in deep emotional pain, feeling like she was fading away, so very different from the thought of drowning, or of suffocating, yet there was something familiar about it.

Then all of a sudden, something clicked...everything surged to her all too fast, feeling, touch, the outright physicality of it all.

And it all felt wrong, there was pain right away, shooting through her body, she couldn't see anything, all had gone black, she tried gasping for air but it felt like none of it was going to her lungs.  
>"Hold her!Hold her still!" heavy hands grabbed at her limbs. On instinct she tried to move away from them, squirming and trying to kick out. She got a few hits, but instead she heard metal hitting metal.<br>"I SAID HOLD H-OW! FRAGGING GLITCH I'LL TEACH YOU!"

her throat was burning, she was trying to scream, shout out, anything, she needed to vocalize her fears.

Hands gripped at her head, messing around with something on top of it...oh god...it felt like her head was open! Was someone operating on her? The pure fear burst inside of her, getting stuck on her burning throat, and for the first time she managed to let out a sound.

The noise that came out was neither a scream nor speech. It was a frequency, a frequency so blarring that the mechs let go of her on instinct, falling to the floor and trying to get as far away as possible, grabbing at their audios painfully.

She took the chance right away, no one was holding her. The movements were fast and disorientating, fear was ruling over and taking control of her actions, she got off blindly from whatever she had been laying on, now that she had stopped she could hear them groan, dragging themselves on the floor.  
>"S-She's getting away!"<p>

"Grab her!"

It didn't matter if she was going to go against something or someone, she made a run for it, hitting walls and things on her way, a pair of hands tried to grab at her feet, making her trip and slide over the hard concrete floor, she still didn't stop, taking a roll, paying little mind to the injury she no doubt to the scratches she had no doubt made on the floor and kept running, going against another wall. She quickly tried to spread her hands over it, searching for a door.  
>"I said GRAB her!"<p>

"I'm trying!I can't get my balance straight! My systems are all messed up!"another grunted, she could hear them scraping against the floor, trying to make their way to her.

She felt the rim of a door at last, but just as she was about to dive in a pair of arms came from behind, grabbing her around the waist.  
>"Gotcha you little petro-rat!" she gasped, eminently squirming in the hold, fighting against whoever had her, but his hold would not release.<p>

No! Someone please! Help me! She pleaded mentally, her words unable to come out coherently, only garbled sounds came out instead.

To her surprise she felt someone...a presence...a warm comforting feeling.

' hold on baby, we're comin'!' a voice spoke, certainly not outside, certainly not in her head, but in her soul. Was it wishful thinking? She could have sworn she'd heard the voice before, but she couldn't recall it. It felt so close...she had to get to it, she didn't know why but it just felt right, it was calling for her, it would take the pain away, it would keep the fear at bay.  
>Making an extra effort she squirmed harder, leaning back, twisting her neck as far back as she could, trying to reach for the one behind her, she was pretty certain from the gasp of the other that he thought for a moment that she was going to kiss him, but instead, she went a bit higher, and bit off his nose with as much strength as she could.<p>

"ARGGHHH!" he let go of her, grabbing for his nose and pushing her away, throwing her to the floor harshly. "MY NOSEPLATE! YOU LITTLE SPAWN! HOW DARE YOU!" she heard the sound of saws.

"Knockout don't! Megatron wants her alive!" another shouted, getting closer, they were getting so close!

She scrambled on her hands and knees and made another dash for it, trying to head to more or less where she knew the door was.

This time she made it out, going against another wall before taking a different direction, following that feeling in her spark.

"Wait! Don't shoot!"

"I'm not going to kill her you dolt! I'm only going to keep her from running off!" she heard from behind her, she had to turn around the hall! Somewhere! The corner had to be close!  
>BAM! The pain came, overloading every sensory net she had, she fell to the floor, grabbing at her thigh, it was dripping! It was dripping something! She had just been shot and she was loosing fluid!<p>

And god did it hurt...the pain spread like fire on her body, she couldn't let go, clinging to the wound, gripping at it as if she hoped that that would ease the pain.

The presence in her spark panicked, trying to give her as much comfort as it could, it was getting close...so close...

"Now..." Knockout's voice rang above, their footsteps stopping next to her. She was forcefully turned around onto her back, and felt a heavy weight land on her waist. "Lets stop playing these games...hold still, this will only sting a little..."

so close...

Suddenly a whole barrage of shooting and noise exploded above her, the mech on top of her quickly getting off, trading back shots.

Amidst the confusion someone grabbed her foot, pulling her towards the ones previously chasing her, making her gasp in pain has her injured leg was dragged across the concrete. A shot hit dangerously close, making the one grab her yell in pain and let go.

"Go!"

"Hold them off!"

"Don't let them close!"

"Hang on!"

"we're coming!"

"no you're not!"

the noise was insufferable, and the pain was getting to her head, even though she couldn't see she could feel the nausea and the vertigo, she panted from the effort of holding the pain back, despite not feeling her lungs.

Steps got close to her again, this time from the other side, the presence was all she could focus on, clinging onto it in fear.

Someone knelt down next to her, she felt hands on her face, brushing away liquid she had not realised had fallen on it.

"S'all righ', yer gonna be fine, focus on meh' " he spoke, caressing her cheeks for a moment before letting go, she could hear him shoot above her, one arm trying to wrap itself around her waist, pulling her close. It was the presence! She could feel it right there, ever so close, ever so warm.

Summoning what little strength she had left she clung to it, holding onto any body part she could.

"Jazz! We need to leave NOW!" another voice, close by shouted.  
>"Cover meh, I'll need ta carry 'er out." Jazz, the one holding her spoke, rising to his feet and bringing her with him with ease.<p>

Her mind was getting foggy, sounds were drowning out slowly, she could faintly distinguish their fighting back, trying to retreat. When her strength started failing her she felt Jazz holding onto her more tightly, supporting her weight.

Huh...Jazz...where had she heard of that name before...? It felt familiar to her soul...but her mind told her nothing, there were no memories of Jazz, or of any of the other voices for that matter. All she could recognize was that warm strong presence, keeping her close, enveloping her in feelings of safety.

Jazz had to hold himself from screaming at the small femme in his arms when her body went limp, a quick frantic scan told him she was still alive, but her energy levels were depleted, her spark felt stressed, and there was still energon dripping from her leg.

He was enraged, Having found her on the floor in that state, with a con sitting on top of her, syringe ready to pierce at her neck cables, her neck...her neck was absolutely mutilated! The protoform of this body had clearly not melded right, it was bulging in unnatural shapes, looking painful and unhealthy.

Her entire body was still only just protoform, and he honestly wouldn't be surprised if the cons had wanted to keep it like that.

By cybertronian terms, she was essentially naked, the lack of armor made her resistance to any physical damage that more dangerous.

Bumblebee and Mirage held Knockout and Hook back, both decepticon medics attempting to regain the youngling. Now that Jazz had her with him again however, he was never letting go, not until they got out of there.

They kept backing away, retreating, trading weapon fire, the battle outside could be heard , getting closer, he would have told Prowl of their so far successful rescue, but that would be too much of a distraction.  
>They finally walked out back into sunlight, Hound and Bluestreak stepping up to give them further cover.<br>"Ratchet's waiting for you! Over by the road!" Hound called without looking back, shooting their enemy at bay. Somewhere in the background he heard another seeker go down.

He nodded at this, cradling the femme tighter against his chassis, looking towards the indicated direction and hurrying his way over.

Sure enough he could see the medic, already working on a fallen cliffjumper, fixing his sparking knee.

"Ratchet!" he called, hurrying the last few steps before kneeling down next to the medic, setting down his child with reluctance.

Ratcet hissed, stopping his work on cliffjumper to inspect the damage.

"Ratch?" Jazz asked anxiously.

"Leg's not a problem, I can fix that easily, but that neck..." he frowned. "that's not supposed to go like that, I'm going to have to operate on her when we get back."

His spark nearly sunk, this wasn't how they planned it...not at all...

"I-is she safe fer transport?"

"Should be, yes, better inform prime before this battle gets any uglier." The medic said with a nod, moving to inspect the femme's neck more thoroughly. Cliffjumper was staring, staring wide opticed.

Jazz only had to give him a growl of warning for him to look away ashamedly, it wasn't polite to look at another when they were in protoform, and he sure as pit wasn't going to allow any mech to stare for longer than they had to.

-Prime, we got 'er, Lyric's with meh an' Ratch's inspectin' er, he needs ta get 'er ta HQ stat. - He commed his leader, keeping an optic on the red minibot.

-Roger that Jazz, tell Ratchet to have her ready. We'll give you a few kliks. -

-Yes sir.-

He turned back to the medic, who was hissing and cursing to himself silently as he carefully moved around the mutating platting of her neck.  
>"Prime says ta have her ready, we're gonna pull back." At this, Ratchet nodded, stepping away to transform into his ambulance mode and opening the back doors.<br>"Load her in, we don't have much time if you want me to fix that neck."

Nodding he carefully went to pick her up back from the floor and did so, his spark nearly screamed at him when he had to close the doors, telling him not to leave her alone. But he wasn't, and he trusted Ratchet.

Prime's voice roared over the battle, calling in their retreat.  
>They hit the road, autobots quickly making a protective circle around Ratchet, even if it weren't Lyric in there, the wounded came first, they were the most fragile and had to be protected by all. After all, they only had themselves left.<p>

Prowl drove up meeting Jazz along their retreat, everyone was gunning their engines, it was hard not to scrape at each others, there was little space in the high way, and they had to match each other's speeds. What few decepticons attempted to pursuit, were met with a vicious assault of many roof rifles and gun shots from their altmodes.

'How is she?' his mate asked, keeping pace next to him, behind Ratchet.

' Had a gun shot to her leg when she tried to escape on 'er own.' Jazz said, fuming in memory of seeing knockout of all cons on top of his little sparkling. 'Ratchet said that's not serious, but the protoform on 'er neck is mutatin'. He needs ta operate on'er'.

He could feel Prowl's spark sink much like his own had at the news.

' so they've already given her a body...' he said sullenly.

'only protoform, dun think she's even got any decent codin' yet, optics were offline, she was disoriented an' scared.' Jazz reasoned with him. 'we'll have ta see what Ratch says about it, then see if we can still transfer 'er to her original body.'

'Let us hope such a thing is still possible...' Prowl answered, the dread filling them both.

* * *

><p>If there was one thing either of them had not wanted at that time, it was to be held back from waiting at the medbay doors.<p>

Both of them found themselves back at the command deck, working with the others and trying to maintain the human alliance's help in keeping the deceptions from continuous attack.

That was the only thing keeping them from a second attack right now, forced to back away, back into hidding.

The terminal's screen where Prowl was working at beeped, a message flickering at the corner signaling a call from the medbay.

As if his hands had been shocked he hurried to open it, only to hesitate for a klik. Did he really want to know? Did he really want to know if it turned out Ratchet couldn't fix her?

_Yes, yes I do wish to know...it shouldn't matter what she looks like...its still her._

Getting over his fear and leashing it tightly somewhere deep in his spark, he connected the call, sending Jazz a light pull to call him over.  
>Ratchet's face appeared on the vid screen.<p>

"Prowl."

"Ratchet..."

"She's stable, I've managed to do a full spark transference." At that, there was a collective exhale of relief from other mechs in the room, Prowl briefly looked back, unaware that they had all been listening in.

"That's good, but you don't sound completely pleased." Jazz stepped up next to him at that moment, briefly brushing his arm lightly.

"No... I suppose I'm not" the medic said with a deep scowl, looking away from the camera thoughtfully. "Her neck was a problem. Even after switching bodies, her neck began mutating again. I've managed to control it, but its still not normal, I'm fairly convinced her systems are trying to form a sonic box next to her vocalizer."

"That would've explained that frequency that scrambled all our circuits..." Jazz reasoned. Even outside they had heard it, although the closer you had been to the source the worse the state the bot was in.

"Anyway, that problem is contained now, but its going to be pretty sore for a good while, I'd advise postponing teaching her how to speak, and I'll have to medicate her appropriate energon so she can actually swallow it." Both nodded at this, taking mental notes.

"There's also the fact that, since this was two body transfers within the same 24 hours, she's going to need a whole lot of rest, she will be weakened by her body's development as it changes the next few days, her firewalls are only basic, so no plugging in to ANY terminals and NO assisted inner functions.

Spark core may suffer some temperature changes so its best to keep her in an isolated space and maintain its same temperature."

"So we can take'er to our quarters?" Jazz spoke up hopefully, his hold on Prowl's arm tightning.

Ratchet hesitated. "Yes...at the end of today you can." he agreed. "But one of you will have to stay with her at all times while she's still developing."

"That can be arranged "Prowl agreed.

"Good, come by at the end of the afternoon shift, I'll have her ready for transport. I'll be refueling her systems until then. Ratchet out." And just like that the screen shut off.


	13. Systems change

I apologize in advance for this chapter as I found myself ill when I wrote it but I found no other free time to do it

* * *

><p>It was all back to darkness, a mixture of feelings and a confusion of sensations.<p>

Jessica didn't know whether to feel cold, or hot, or wet, or dry, or scared, or tired, or curious.

Her mind felt like it had been flushed down the toilet, then fished out only to be flushed again, then again that was probably the most pleasant example she could come up with at the moment, but there was so much the mind could do when it felt in such a way.

Could have been a whirlwind, yeah, a whirlwind sounded a LOT better than a toilet, definitely.

Slowly her sensations tried to work together, her sense of touch came first, but there wasn't much that she could make out of it, smooth and sort of comfortable...she guessed. The floor maybe? Nope...not that hard, but not much softer either...more like...rubber, yeah, it felt kind of like very hard rubber.  
>Why was she lying on rubber? No, never mind, the mind doesn't get to work yet, first came the senses, then her mind could try to make some logic out of it.<p>

She attempted to sniff at the air.

Well the rubber was confirmed,but there was another scent in the air, stuffy and dusty...ah yes...computer fans, that had to be it, she could smell it! She was too used living around a computer not to mistake it.

Then came the sound, it was quiet, for the most part, except for the distant tip tapping on a keyboard somewhere and the low hum of the computer.

And finally, sight.

No? No sight? For some reason she could not for the life of her seem to open her eyes, it was like she felt herself open her eyelids, but she still couldn't see. She hadn't gone blind somehow had she?

She shifted a little, she could still move, but turned out that wasn't such a great idea. Even without sight she felt as if the world spun around her and immediately lost balance, her head falling back onto the surface she lay on noisily.

It didn't even register to her that the typing had ceased abruptly, she was too focused on trying not to vomit, her head was once again going down that darned toilet.

A hand rested on her shoulder, steadying her movements, another supposedly pulling up covers back up over her body.  
>"Shhh. Its too soon, go back to sleep." a deep voice spoke, in a strange soothing manner.<p>

"C-can't-t" her voice came out horribly hissed, and as soon as she let the first word out, she regreted it, her hands lunging for her throat as it hissed out a horrible noise she didn't knew she was capable of, it felt like it burned inside, like her innards were melting.  
>"Do not speak. Your throat needs the most recovery." the hand on her shoulder shifted to the back, rubbing it soothingly. Now that was something you didn't see everyday. Who did she know that would rub her back like a little kid? "Go back to sleep" it insisted "all will be well soon, you are safe. We are not going to let anyone else hurt you again."<p>

The little 'we' in that phrase seemed like a switch, all at once it was as if her memories reverted back to what she once knew.  
>The cat, Peirce and Jason, no, Prowl and Jazz, Optimus prime, robots, giant medbays, alarms, then...<p>

A shudder ran through her body, an odd clanking sound following. She slowly let go of her throat, her hands moving hesitantly to her face, searching for her eyes.  
>She pawed for them, but was confused as the only thing she felt was a harsh surface, not of her face, something hard and not as easily bendable as skin...something...<br>the pair of hands moved to stop her searching, holding her in them.  
>"Not yet, you aren't ready." It was Prowl's voice, she recognized, but, his hands were to scale with hers, and they did not feel human either...it was clearly his robotic ones. Which in theory meant...<br>a small little light appeared in the darkness of her vision, she looked at it, it said ' online visual scanners'.

How did she press it? How did she online it? Visual scanners just HAD to be her eyes, it didn't take a genius to guess what she was guessing.

She tried physically reaching for it first, nope, all that did was make the elder mech stop her.

Maybe it was like iron man? Eye movement directing his interface controls inside the Armour suit?

Nope, that wasn't it either.

Perhaps, she just had to think it? Theoretically she was just thinking 'how do I make it work' and not 'work'.

She tried it, her vision flickered, it flickered an image of...something...a whole bunch of other menus came up, settings and adjustments, oh good, because right now her vision couldn't make out a single thing.  
>"Lyr-" Prowl cut himself off "Jessica, please, don't struggle anymore. Shut down your optics."<p>

Optics... even though she had already guessed it, hearing it being said just stung deeper. As she focused her vision, and adjusted the color not to look so yellowish, her worst guess was confirmed, she was looking at her own hands, metal hands, enveloped in prowl's, both were of dark ebony color, pretty similar in design, if not more slender and petite than the others'.

The mech let out a vent, leaning down to pet at her helmet as she looked up at him with confusion and hurt.  
>"I'm sorry, I didn't want you to see it so soon. We didn't have a choice, you would die without a body."<p>

The brightness of her amber optics scared him, his spark twisting inside as he recognized the expression forming on her young face, disgust, fear, confusion, but most of all, hurt.  
>A small sound, like a sparkling klik, it was the most horrible sound in the world, then another.<p>

He gently sat down beside her and leaned down, pulling her onto an embrace, resting her head against his soon to be not so clean chassis.

Her frame trembled as the sounds increased, her optic lids coming down to close the optics that would not shut down, strings of their light coming out from the seams, reflecting on the coolant slowly ebbing out from the corners.

Soon her badly developing vocalizer was letting out choked wails, and all Prowl could do was hold her closer, trying to give as much comfort as possible.

* * *

><p>Jessica began to wake several times after that first occurrence, but none of them ever lasted as long.<p>

Sometimes she would wake to the light typing of Prowl's at his desk, working away for countless hours, sometimes it'd be to Jazz's low humming voice, other times it was just the quiet of the night, where the only indication they were still there was the two bodies each sleeping on one side of her protectively.

She couldn't get herself to care at how strange and inappropriate that should have been, she couldn't get herself to think beyond the fact that her body did not feel like her own.

The feeling was foreign, everything was, her sense of touch was different, metal didn't feel as cold and harsh as it used to as she quickly learned by the presence of the two elder cybertronians.

During this time she had plenty of opportunities to think about her life, her plans, her choices, and to review everything that had happened.

It bothered that she couldn't remember much from her kidnapping, but then again, that was probably a good thing.

Her main focus was on her conversation with BlueStreak. She had agreed to give ...her...parents...a chance to speak, but how to start a conversation like that was beyond her.

She could just deal it with the good old way, the same way she treated the bullies and her old parents.

Cold efficiency, straight to the point, need to know only conversations.

Slowly she looked up towards Jazz's sleeping faceplate, his visor was off.

She would have called, but her throat still hurt every time she attempted to speak, so instead, she shifted, or tried to.

To be truthful, she hadn't quite gotten the hang of moving just yet, well not coherently anyway, cybertronian bodies moved differently, with much more precision. Precision she did not have control of yet.

However, with the two mechs so close to her, it took her little effort to stir them awake, although it seemed as though they were reluctant to.  
>Jazz rested a hand atop her helm, pushing it down onto the pillow again, muttering something intelligible.<p>

She persisted though, trying to give him a kick, and essentially failing by kneeing his thigh instead.

The mech gave a grunt, his visor snapping online brightly, momentarily blinding her, she waited for it to dim, not bothering with adjusting her own vision, it was too much work.  
>"W-wha? Lyric? Wassup girly?" his visor finally dimmed, the hand that held her helmet let it free, petting the top of it. "everythin' all righ'? Ya in pain?" Prowl's shifting behind her told her he was waking up as well. She shook her head lightly but her kept her optics fixated on the mech in front of her, hoping to be able to transmit the idea that she wanted to say something.<p>

Fortunately, it seemed that he caught on for he shifted, sitting up against the wall behind them.  
>"Whats wrong?" Prowl's voice spoke from behind, she couldn't really see him from that angle, but she had earlier found that it was really hard to roll over, in fact, she couldn't do it, it was as if something behind her was stopping her.<br>"Dunno, woke me up just now, dun' seem ta want ta go to recharge"

Jessica refrained from growling, though what came out instead, was a loud engine sound coming from her chest, it startled her so much she jerked in her place. What the heck was that?

"woah, calm down girly, we're not ignorin' ya" Jazz spoke, looking down surprised at her.

"We apologize if it seemed so, it was not our intention." Prowl added, his hands resting on her shoulders reassuringly.

They watched as she looked at herself distressingly, tapping at her own chassis in question, as if expecting another growl.

"Its all righ', that was jus' yer way of showin' yer angry, like a growl, we dun just use our vocalizers to express sounds." Jazz told her, regaining her attention.

As if to prove his point, she tilted her head slightly, and kliked, like a sparkling would, and then quickly tried to cover her mouth with her clumbsy hands.

"See? Ya did it again." Jazz said, moving to pull her up a little, helping her sit up. She could now see Prowl.

"Although kliking is sparkling language" he said with a frown "Ratchet didn't mention anything about that."  
>"Relax Prowler, Bumblebee still kliks too occasionally, besides, its 'er first frame, it'd be weird if she didn'"<p>

Another engine growl brought them at attention, the young femme quickly trying to cover her chest to muffle the sound.

God was it ever embarrassing! She couldn't even control her body? This really really sucked.

"Jessica its all right, its nothing to be ashamed of" Prowl said, reaching to remove her hands from covering her chassis. "its natural, its just a representation of how you feel."  
>How she felt? She felt frustrated that's what! She couldn't speak, couldn't move properly, and she was essentially sandwiched between two robots who were supposed to be the parents she had ever known, how was she supposed to feel about that?<p>

Another engine growl made her recoil into the pillows attempting to disappear in them.

"Be careful of your doorwings" Prowl said, moving to her back, readjusting her position. "you don't want to damage those so early on."

Doorwings? She chanced trying to look back over her shoulder, and her heart- or spark- gave a jump at the sight. Sure enough, there were doorwings there all right, albeit a lot smaller than the elder mech's, and a lot uglier, without any paint and plain looking. So that's why she couldn't roll over, huh...that was new...were they limbs? Or was it like hair? Could she control them?

The mech's chuckles drew her attention back to them, she pouted. Would the embarrassment ever end.

"Forgive us, it is amusing to see you expression while you try to figure them out, we'll teach you how to use them in time. But not yet, for now Ratchet has them shut off, you're not ready for the data input they will give you." he said petting her head affectionately.

"Gotta be frustratin' not ta be able ta talk about yer questions though" Jazz pointed out, joining his mate, both closing in on the young femme in an attempt to give her comfort.  
>"Perhaps she can..." Prowl mused "if we can teach her to use her side of the bond. She would be able to perfectly communicate with us."<p>

What? Really? How did she do that? How far was the extent of it?

"Righ' "Jazz said uncertainly "lets hope it won't be as hard as the las' time then, these things do take time ta get used ta."  
>Prowl nodded lightly before returning his attention to the young femme, who had been observing them intently "is that all right with you Jessica? It will potentially make you tired, but you will be able to talk to Jazz and I, share feelings even."<p>

She considered it for the longest time, trying to read their faces, anxiety, hope even, was written on Jazz, Prowl's...was a bit harder to read. Slowly she nodded, and the saboteur grew the cheekiest grin ever.

"All righty, then we're gonna try an' reach out firs', don't get startled, we're just gonna reach, its like tappin' ya on the shoulder ta get yer attention."

upon her nodding again, they went still, seeming to focus on something.

Like the first time she felt a yank at her heart, making her gasp for air, and jerk in her spot in surprise, it felt so strange, like someone had a sudden grasp at your soul, an invisible hand materializing out of no where.  
>Thankfully this time however it wasn't as strong as the first, in fact it was much the opposite, it was a gentle reach, like a soft caress. Her optics subconsciously dimmed, her engine, unknowingly to her very distracted mind, gave a low pur.<p>

'That's it, take it easy' Prowl's voice echoed in her mind.

'how...? how do I do that? How do I speak like that? Is there a switch somewhere? An option or a menu? Do I have to will it like before? There's nothing in my hud saying anything! Is this stupid thing even working like it should?'

Jazz chuckled both in the bond and outside of it, the sound making her soul vibrate with a sort of delight she couldn't control.

' ya already are talkin' we can hear ya loud 'n clear.'

'Wait. You can? How? How does that happen? I didn't do anything'

'Its complicated to explain how a bond works exactly, most of us accept that it just does, but we are giving you a bit of a push by coming in first.' Prowl spoke, a sort of warmth coming from his voice, enveloping her.

'So, ya wanted ta talk' Jazz interrupted, before she could sink further into it. 'whats the problem?'

'Oh right, I did want to ask a lot of things. First of all then... WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?' both mechs flinched, a torrent of anger coming with her words over the bond, nearly throwing them back.

'WHY AM I IN THIS BODY! WHO WAS THAT STUPID MOTHER F-'

'LANGUAGE!' Prowl attempted in vain,

' THAT JUST WENT AHEAD AND DECIDED IT'D BE NICE TO PEIRCE AN ELETRIC ROD THROUGH MY BLOODY HEART?'

The mixture of feelings they were being flooded with was dizzying, she had no control over it, not that they thought she would have held it back if she could of. There was a whole lot of fear, confusion and hurt, in the end, she was just a child still, and no child deserved to go through that, least of all now when she felt the most lonely.

As soon as they'd recovered from it, they dove back in, spreading their calm and love, trying to soothe her anger.

Her tantrum slowly died down, her words eventually seizing until all it felt like was a small crying child. In real life her optics had begun to leak again, her body shaking.

'Its all right, he's not coming back, no one's ever going to touch you like that again.' Prowl's voice soothed, his arms wrapping themselves around her numb body.

'We weren't gonna put ya in yer body until ya felt ready for it...but the cons beat us to it, by the time we got to ya ya were already in a body, an' we had ta switch ya to a new one to top it off, otherwise ya'd be getting' Decepticon codin'. '

' what does that even MEAN?' another burst of fear, nearly throwing them out again.

'Its like a software, but a real powerful one.' he tried to explain ' Decepticon codin' tells ya what ta do without question, it teaches ya ta obey. It gives ya the wrong ideals'

'you mean it makes me a slave.' at least she didn't shout it this time, and for that they were relieved, they were getting somewhere.

'Yes, that is what Decepticon coding does to you, and unless you are experienced with codes and the like, you would have a very had time fighting it. Most Decepticons never even realize they have such a coding controlling them. After a while it just becomes part of them and there is nothing we can do to fix it.' Prowl explained, one hand caressing her faceplates, cleaning away the tears.

'we thought we were gonna loose ya...' Jazz added cleaning the opposite cheek. 'came as fast as we could, but when we got there, ya were already tryin' ta escape.' a fond smile came to his features at that, she felt pride swarm from him. 'came runnin' straight ta me, me an' mah team took it from there.

'I...I don't...I don't remember any of that...'

'that's to be expected, you were panicking, running on survival mode, its possibly for the best that you do not remember.'she did not answer to that, preferring to stay silent for a good while.

The two mechs were uneasy with it, they wanted to help, but they knew they couldn't push too far either.

'whats wrong with me?' she spoke at last, sounding much more sedated. ' why can't I talk? Or move normally.'

'Ratchet says your vocalizer is developing beyond the normal, a more advanced type if you will, it'll take longer for it to be fully functional, so until then avoid speaking.' prowl answered her, shifting a little with her to get a bit more comfortable, settling down. ' the rest is a matter of time and learning,we work differently from what you are used to.'

' So I have to learn to walk all over again?'

'ta walk, ta read, ta speak, an' a whole lot more, but one step at a time' Jazz said, leaning down to kiss her atop the helmet. ' But ya dun' have ta learn it all alone, yer not by yerself anymore. We'll do everythin' we can ta help.'

' I want to be able to move again...' she said, her embarrassment returning now that they were settling back down, as if getting ready to go back to sleep.

'You will, we can start practicing once you feel fully rested, as long as we ourselves are not at work or in battle.'

'shh...you dun' have ta worry about tha'. Ya jus' need ta rest, go to recharge sparkles.'

she pouted at this again, giving a weak protest, but they were persistent and kept sending her their calm.

'its weird sleeping with you two'

she felt their frames vibrate lightly with their humored chuckles.

'ya will get used to it, yer our lil' sparklin' after all. Ya belong here'

Reluctantly, she let it go, feeling their tiredness over that odd link.

Only once she stopped feeling them and was sure they'd returned to their sleep, did she allow herself to feel better in that cozy spot.

* * *

><p>The next time she came to, only Prowl was there, back to his desk, typing away on his computer as per usual.<br>She watched him for a few minutes, waiting for sleep to take over again, but just like last time, she wasn't quite tired yet, It would seem that she was indeed slowly recovering and needing less and less sleep.

Carefully she attempted to sit up, only for her limbs to wobble and give in under her weight, making her fall back on the bed clumsily.

The noise must have called Prowl's attention as his writing immediately ceased.

"Jessica." his hands rested on her shoulders and helped her turn on her side. "Are you all right?"

she nodded, avoiding optic contact and attempting again.  
>This time he helped her to sit up, leaning her back against the pillows.<p>

'what time is it?'

He stopped where he stood, looking back at her intently, a small smile emerging on his lips.

"you learn quickly...figured out how to call me out. Its eleven in the morning, relatively early still. How are you feeling?"

'bit better...more awake' she said, looking around casually, only now did she realize that there were a lot of picture frames around their bed area, Before she'd been too reluctant to look towards that direction, and after that she'd been too out of it, now she actually took it in.

It wasn't just one of two pictures, it was quite a lot of them, many of them had her old self in them, pictures taken in different years, and she had never realized them. Prowl seemed to follow her gaze and reached out to pat her atop the head.

"We had little to remember you by other than the images, we wanted something to hold on to, especially Jazz, he...did not take losing you very well." his gaze lowered, looking regretful.

'What do you mean?' she asked, lightly tilting her head to see his expression better.

"Jazz was your carrier, carriers are the ones that have the new spark within them until they are ready to be born into their first body. Their connection to the sparkling is much stronger than that of the sire, at least in the beginning, since they had such a direct contact with their creation. When we had to send you away...it was a great loss for him, mine as well, but I didn't know yet exactly how much I had lost, Jazz on the other hand, knew precisely what he was losing, it tore him apart for the longest time."

'I'm sorry...I didn't know.'

"That was a bit of the the point wasn't it?" he said with a bitter smile, his doorwings so low they touched the thermal sheets behind him. "The best way to protect you was to cut off all connections we had, no matter how painful it was." he paused, looking away, his gaze fixing on one of the wall pictures. "We only had you with us for a week after you were born, that was all. That was all we could allow ourselves." The picture he was currently looking at, had Jazz in it, holding a small mass of wires and metal that formed that formed what she could only guess was a sparkling, herself perhaps?

Now, she might not have been an expert at understanding cybertronian expressions and emotions, but even an idiot could tell Prowl's dejection when he looked at that picture.  
>With some effort, she focused as much as she could in raising her arm, the flimsy Armour covering its inner workings trembling a little with her effort it wasn't that it was particularly heavy, that wasn't her problem, the problem was coordinating it right, the balance was completely off of what she was used to and so required her utmost attention.<p>

Prowl looked away from the picture, looking a little confused when he noticed what she was doing, he didn't move, letting her try, letting her explore and learn.  
>She reached out, just under his chin, and pushed up. Lifting his face.<br>' times are past old man, things change. I know I'm not the same...I'm probably nothing of what you expected me to be, but, even if I'm in a different body now, at least I'm still me.'

His small smile returned, so different from Jazz's, it was more subtle, more innocent in a way, it was the kind of smile she'd always try to get her past father to give her, and had never managed.  
>"You are right, and we wouldn't have it any other way. "he said, taking her hand and letting it rest. "We … have some videos of when you were born, would you like to see them? I know its a bit strange, but perhaps that will make it easier on you, to accept I mean. To know your origin and creation."<p>

'that would be nice yes, thank you.'

With that he got up from where he had been sitting on the berth, and moved to his desk, opening a drawer and taking out what looked like a small memory card, though knowing them, it was probably something much more advanced.

He walked back over to the berth and initiated a small control mechanism on the wall, moving around with settings or whatever it was and inserting the little card.

' I still can't read any of that... is it not in my...programing?' he chuckled lightly at her question, not looking away from what he was doing.

"Just because we can program a lot of things into ourselves, doesn't mean we learn everything right away, we need to learn some things the hard way, just like humans do, writing and reading is just going to be one of those things for you, as well as speaking our language."

' but your language is made of weird clicking and clanking noises, how am I to-' she cut herself off at his look. ' oh...right...heh...robot now.'

"Cybertronian, not a robot." he corrected "believe it or not there is a vast difference between both terms."

' Sorry.'

"Its nothing to be sorry about, you are learning." a hatch on the ceiling began to slide open, revealing a screen. That came down slowly. "The videos will play now, call me if you need anything, I'll be by my desk working." he said, giving her head one last pet before moving off.  
>She watched him go until the screen lit up, showing the fist recording.<p>

Quickly in her hud she searched for her 'notepad' option and got ready to take notes of what she saw.

A cybertronian appeared, grinning at the camera with a familiar falshy smile, a visor looking back brightly.  
>"Heya Prowler! Thought Ah might start makin' these fer the lil' un, ya know, so we can tell it where how it came ta be when its older."<p>

"Jazz... we don't even know if its a femme or a mech yet, shouldn't this wait?" Prowl's voice spoke, likely the one filming, confirming that this was the same pair, despite how different they looked.

"Now now dun' be embarrassed "the other said patronizingly "it dun matter if its a femme or a mech, an' while ah would very much like a lil' femme ta cuddle to, we both know the chance of tha' is very unlikely, ya see lil' un, sparklin's are only born as femmes very very rarely, most o'them come straight from the allspark." he said to the camera now, it was actually bizarre to watch him say it.

Prowl's sigh of frustration could be heard.

"Righ' now, yer still in 'ere" Jazz spoke, tapping at his chest "movin' aroun' mah spark, like the lil' tibit ya are. But soon we'll be buildin' ya yer body"

Building her body? What did he mean by that? How were cybertronians born anyway?

"Jazz, before you move on" his mate interrupted him when he was about to continue speaking "should you explain to it the process?"

"Ah, sure, Ah guess yer righ'. See, yer spark is developin' next ta mine, yer a greedy lil' thing all righ', takin' all the energy ya want an' need, keepin' me on triple rations a day already. Ya see, once yer lil' spark grows enough, we gotta give ya a body o'yer own ta live in, yer protoform, an' fer now, yer primary shell too. Later ya will be getting' yer secondary shell. But that's all techy info ya likely already know by now" he said gesturing with his hands in dismissal. "the important thing ta know now, is that yer our sparklin', we can't wait ta meetcha, and we love ya."


	14. New everything

Jazz came back later that day, at the end of the afternoon shift, feeling tired, sore from the chair he had to sit in all day, and with a huge craving for affection since he had spent most of the day by himself in the office.

As he reached the familiar door of his shared quarters, he straightened up a little bit, checked himself briefly and put in the code to enter.

It was no surprise to find Prowl at his desk, working away in his console, fully focused on what he was doing.

What surprised him was that Lyric was sitting up on the berth, leaning against a few pillows behind her, currently asleep with a remote on her hand. The screen in front of her was shinning light on her, but it was clearly on pause.

"Lil' missy wake up?" he asked, more out of a reason to start a conversation than to get an answer, that much was obvious.

"Yes, I gave her some of the videos we made when she was sparked." Prowl answered him, clearly paying only half attention to his mate "Fell back to recharge a few hours ago."

"Few hours ago? How long did she stay up this time aroun'?" The saboteur asked, making his way to Prowl, moving around him and resting his elbow's on the others' shoulders, getting comfortable between his doorwings.

Prowl let out a heavy vent, feeling his patience slip, and his concentration vanishing.

"For about four hours until she began to nod off, by which time I insisted she rested."

Jazz let out a low whistle, looking back at his creation, she had a peaceful expression on her.

"Definitely recoverin' then, Ratch'll want to know."

"I have already sent him a report about it, he will be coming by tomorrow for a check up."

"Tomorow huh?" The TIC repeated thoughtfully, looking back to his mate. "So how'd she take the vids?"

"Hard to say. She was rather focused on them, that much was certain, and put up a bit of a fight when I told her to stop for today and rest. So I would assume she enjoyed them, or at least found them of some interest." He paused his work momentarily "I am not certain but I believe she was also taking notes."

"Notes?" Jazz asked curiously.

"Yes, notes. She would pause the video every so often in order to do something, I am guessing she was taking mental notes."

"Clever girl, she can ask us about what she didn' get later." He said, finally letting go of his mate, ignoring the sigh of relief and pulled a chair next to him where he sank into.

"How did it go at the office today?" Prowl asked, recommencing his typping.

"Borin'. S'no fun withoutcha." Jazz said, bending his neck, letting his head fall back over the chair so he could look at the ceiling.  
>"'Least everythin's quiet. Twins haven't been prankin', the minibots haven't caused any arguments..."<p>

"Sounds like an ideal day." Prowl commented idly.

"Sounds like Borin'." Jazz corrected him with a small pout. "Ah could've spent the day'ere with ya two!" he whined childishly.

"You know one of us needs to stay here and the other go to the office, we need to be available for the others, not just to Lyric. Its our duty."

"Well why don't you stay in the office then? Ya love that place, yer perfect for it."

"No, I am not, the reason for you being in the office is because if someone needs you you can communicate a lot better than I, and if anything like a prank of a fight happens, you are the mech for the job, not I, I can easily do the desk work from here. You know this Jazz."

Jazz's pout only increased.

"Well its not fair, I wanna be aroun' too. Ah dun wanna spend all the orn by mah self in the office. The isolation is gettin' to mah processor!"

A small groan interrupted them, the two looking back towards the berth where their creation stirred. For long tense moments they waited, until they were sure she was still going to remain in recharge.  
>Prowl let out a vent of relief "I suggest you keep it down Jazz."<p>

"Righ', sorry 'bout that. Didn't realize that'd wake her up...hasn't so far."

"She's recovering at a good speed, it shouldn't be too long before I can join you in the office again" Prowl said, gaining a cheeky grin from his mate.

"Aw! Prowler! Ah knew ya cared!" he said throwing himself back at the other in a casual embrace, briefly pecking his lip plates.

The next day Ratchet came at his expected time, they had to wake the poor femme beforehand, not wanting to surprise her with any scanning the medic might have to do.

She sat up against the pillows, muttering to herself in a low voice, in a bad mood for being waken up from peaceful sleep.

"Ratch'll be quick, then ya can go back ta recharge."Jazz assured her, sitting down next to her, rubbing at her shoulder comfortingly, helping her stay awake.

Prowl went to the door, inputting the code to open it for the medic. Ever since the Decepticon's last attack, they had doubled security as much as they could, particularly their own quarters for Lyric's own safety.

"Why did it have to be so freaking early though? Doesn't he know teens like to sleep in?" she growled half heartedly.

The door slid open, allowing in the red and white medic.  
>"Good morning Ratchet."<br>"Prowl" Ratchet said nodding to him and then turning to the other two "Jazz, Lyric." the girl frowned a little at her designation, but let it pass this time, it was too early to argue. He stepped up to the berth, his optics already scanning a basic scan from afar.

"How have you been doing kid?"

"Sleepy still" she said dryly "but its getting better."

Ratchet nodded at this, unsubspacing a small scanner, setting it down on the beside table and connecting a cable to it. The femme watched it all with apprehensive curiosity.

"I'm going to connect this to your head, don't worry, its just a diagnostic's scan since you can't use your own as of yet."

"I have the ability to run diagnostics on myself?" she questioned, waking up a little bit more.

"Well, basic ones at least, every bot does, to get more advanced ones however you need to be a medic, its a more complicated type of software."

"I see." she said, looking a little nervous when he reached for her helmless head, connecting the cable to the side just under the audio.

"How're you dealing with movement?" The medic asked distractedly, while the machine started its work, his optics on the small screen, reading the messages popping up one after the other.  
>"Its still hard" she said, flexing her fingers experimentally "But I'm getting the hang of it. I could fully pick up the remote and press the controls yesterday at least."<p>

"That's quite impressive" Ratchet noted. "I would have figured it would have taken you a few more days before you could do something that precise." his optic ridges rose as he kept reading the machine, it seemed that with each message they would go an inch higher.

"Well its no fun not being able to move, I really want to be able to walk around again, staying in here all the time is going to drive me mad once I'm not so sleepy."

At that, Prowl was strongly reminded of Jazz's own cabin fever over staying in the office, it seemed Lyric had inherited that much, though he took small comfort that like him, she had also planned ahead.

Ratchet snorted in mild amusement. "No I suppose you wouldn't like that, besides you have a new body, its a whole lot of new things to try and discover." He turned back to Prowl "How often did you say she was recharging again?"

"She has only woken up about once a day for a few minutes for a while, its only been recently that she's been waking two to three times each day."

"Stayed up aroun' four hours yesterday too" Jazz added, hugging his creation a little closer, worried about the medic's question.

"Huh...well that's... interesting, for once I seem to have a good little patient." Ratchet said, frowning at the scanner and tapping it, as if checking if it was broken.

"Is something... out of order Ratchet?" Prowl asked wearily, his doorwings raising a little, taking in the medic's actions.

"Well...no, not really, in fact, quite the opposite, the scanner's telling me she's recovered far more than she should have by now...when did you regain your speech?"

"This morning" she said, lightly rubbing at her neck cabling, it still hurt a little, and it was uncomfortable and scratchy, but she could at least speak again.

"You've an amazing recovering rate then." he stated. "All that rest and proper refueling have given you a good boost, wish more mechs in our fragging base would do the same. He shut off the device, and moved to remove the cable.

"She should definitely start staying awake a lot longer now, I'd say its safe for her to try a few first steps once I have her doorwings back online."

Prowl's own doorwings stiffened visibly at the mention.

"I can start walking again?" The femme asked, a small sparkle of hope appearing in her yellowish optics.

"Soon, I'd rather you start straight away with the doorwings, your balance is going to be very different with them, so its best to learn to move with them from the start." he explained.

"When can I have them onlined then?" she asked hastily.

Ratchet didn't answer, narrowing his optics, evaluating the femme before looking at the creators uncertainly. "Welll..."

"If it were possible Ratchet, it would save us a whole lot of time if we took care of it immediately." Prowl aided him.

"Fine. But I'm not shutting them off afterwards, and I leave you two solely responsible for whatever happens." He said, still looking unsure about the decision. "Turn around, this won't take very long."

Lyric promptly tried to turn herself around, Jazz having to help her keep her balance. She had a nervous expression on her faceplates, but determined to get things going. He could honestly sympathize with her, sitting in a berth so long had to be killing her patience.

Ratchet moved around her backplates, taking off the frail protective armor he applied to her body in the beginning, it would have to later be replaced for her real armor, which was at the moment in construction. It wasn't the kind of things they wanted to rush in, since it was her first frame, her body would have to adapt to it.  
>Right now she was sort of an uggly duckling, if he could put it in human terms.<p>

Even the doorwings, which were a praxian's pride, they were nothing more than flimsy pieces of mechanics, barely covered and disguised by the temporary armor, once they were forged however, they would certainly look much better.

He moved around the sensory pannels, searching for the right nodes that he had to reanimate.

All the warning lyric got was a small shock on her back, before her mind was flooded with information. She let out a small yelp, forgetting all about sitting up and leaning heavily on Jazz for support.

The amount of data going into her processor, even though she couldn't fully read and see all of it, it was astounding. It was like having a second pair of eyes on her back, yet not quite, those eyes also had the sense of touch, the smallest vibration, the smallest touch, everything could be felt. Ratchet's movements, applying back the armor were all too clear in her mind. It was an odd experience, seeing from your back, and yet not quite seeing, she didn't get any visuals at least, but she was being fed this sort of vague net of lines, kind of like a 3D program used when modeling a figure or character.

It was truly a strange experience.

"There we go." Ratchet spoke, his voice sending vibrations up her doorwings, giving her chills. "They should be a LITTLE hypersensitive, you'll have to deal with that."

She couldn't even muster up words, trying to deal with all the information being fed to her.

"They will mute it down in time, they are brand new after all, and once you get your final armor it should be a little better."

"Feels like I'm in my time of the month...urgh...so sensitive..." she muttered, scowling at the sensations, it made her so emotional.

"Yes well, in your case that would have been the backlash of not having them installed when you were in your previous body, it made for a very convincing period."

the femme growled at that, signalling she did not find it as much of a feat as he made it sound.

"You're telling me that was the ACTUAL reason for all those back aches? All that time?!"

The medic chuckled, subspacing his scanner.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Now, she should be fine for a while, Prowl you know more about this matter than I do, I'll leave you to instruct her the rest" he said to the SIC. "Good luck."

"Thank you Ratchet" Prowl said politely, leading him to the door.

Jazz held his creation tenderly, smiling a little at her low growls, her optics shifting brightness as she tried to focus on the new appendages. He watched them move with curiosity.

They extended outwards in slow motions, as if stretching, then would flick right or left, moving a little awkwardly yet still with that natural grace that Praxians had. In a way, it reminded him of some of the nature channels Prowl enjoyed watching sometimes, where they showed young birds, just out of their eggs, their tiny little wings stretching and curling, flailing clumsily as they came into the world. Lyric was reacting no different.

They rotated on their joints a little, like the roll of a shoulder, before giving a wide flap, staying in a laid down position Jazz knew to mean weariness. It wasn't often that he saw Prowl use it, but he'd seen it on Smokescreen and Bluestreak a few times.

"Ready ta go back ta recharge?" He asked her, looking back down to her face, she was pouting slightly, looking embarrassed.

"I'm not feeling sleepy anymore...and this...is going to keep me awake anyway." she said grumpily.

He chuckled, hugging her tighter, noting that Prowl had shut the door again and was returning to them.

"They seem to have a mind of their own." she said, sounding frustrated, and indeed her doorwings followed suit, giving a brusque flap, signaling such frustration.

"Doorwings aren't just mere limbs like arms or legs Lyric" Prowl spoke, sitting down on the other side, where he had a full view of her doorwings and back. "It is a bit like the expressions, they react almost instantly, to stop them from doing so requires a great deal of control. Most bots do not even bother trying to achieve such control."

"Well yours don't act up all the time" she said as they made another frustrated flap.

Jazz had to laugh at that one, swaying a little back and forth as if cradling her.

"Prowler here would be one o' those exceptions sweetspark. No one knows self control better than 'im."

"Can you teach me how?" she asked, her doorwings going up so fast the creak they made sounded, and looked painful.  
>"First, I believe we should focus on learning how to use them and for what" Prowl said, gently grabbing each of the ugly winglets and lowering him just a bit, setting them just at about the right height. "Try to keep them at that height, it will make it easier for you to gather your balance that way" he instructed.<br>"Right... if I can keep them that high." she muttered, glaring back at them. They twitched and vibrated, but at least, it seemed she could control them enough to stay at the indicated height.

"Very good" Prowl praised, his hands under the wings in case they went down.

"When will I be able to go out?" She asked, trying to focus on stilling the new limbs.

"Anxious are ya?"

"I've been stuck in here for...how long?"  
>"A few earthen weeks" Prowl supplied.<p>

"Right, see? That's a long time, and its starting to honestly feel extremely claustrophobic!" they had to search the web for an astro klik to look up the term, it was not that cybertronians did not have it, simply they did not know the humans had a term for it too, and it wasn't a regular word they would hear for the long time they had been there.

"Ya will be able to roam aroun' the halls soon, as soon as the doc gives the go ahead an' ya learn ta walk aroun'" Jazz comforted, squeezing his hold on her a little, resting his chin above her helmless head.

"And as soon as we can get you proper armor." Prowl noted "we cannot have you simply going around in that state." he lightly gestured to her. She followed the look to her body, then looked back up a little confused.  
>"What? Whats wrong with my looks now?"<p>

Jazz hissed, knowing Prowl hit a subject they did not want to touch.

"You are still in protoform, what you have to cover it is merely temporary and highly inappropriate."

The girl stared at him harshly for the longest time, the tension could be cut with a knife as her processor made just about the gist of what he was saying.

"You're telling me...that right now...at this precise and very moment, I'm NAKED?!"

For once, Prowl seemed at a loss of words, his features softening a little into worry.  
>"W-well... I wouldn't say... exactly...in those terms."<br>"And you two have just been STANDING there, WATCHING ME while I SLEEP! WORSE! YOU'VE SLEPT WITH ME LIKE THAT!"

Suddenly saying that seemed to make her realize Jazz was still hugging her...chest. With a shriek, she pushed herself away, and grabbed the nearest object, which happened to be one of the rubber pillows.  
>"OUT!" she shrieked, hitting the saboteur with it to get him as far away as possible, and then glaring at prowl before swing it at him, the SIC having to duck back to avoid it."OUT!DON'T LOOK AT ME YOU PERVERTED PAIR OF PEDOPHILES!"<p>

The two looked at each other distressed, each seeking the answer in the other, though when the first pillow flew at them, and they saw the young femme grab the alarm clock, well... they knew what to do, they scrambled to the door under her shrieks of fury, the alarm hitting the door behind them just as it closed.

From outside, they could hear the young femme in a string of curses as she attempted to...do something.

Jessica grabbed the rubber sheet, quickly wrapping it around her torso just under the armpits and giving it a tight knot, making sure it covered her entire body, in fact, it was a little longer. It was a little complicated with the newly awakened doorwings, even the tiniest brush against them would send a burst of...frizzing data to her head, it was like having impossibly sensitive shivers. So eventually she found out she could flatten the ugly things against her back and THEN cover them with the sheet, keeping them still and in place. The next thing to do? Move to the couch. Like pit if she was sleeping with those two again, just thinking about it made her blush...uhh...could she blush? She touched her cheekplates, they felt warm but she obviously couldn't see if they could actually gain a blush.

This whole ordeal just felt so...EMBARASSING, frustrating, irritating really.

She dragged her bottom to the end of the berth, the rubber sheet making some unpleasant squeaking along the way, and then glared at the couch...which was quite a bit away from the berth... she didn't know how to walk, she could barely manage hand movement, but somehow she had to get there.

Gently she set one pede down, and slowly took in the readings she got, yes, even pedes gave her readings, although she couldn't really consciously read them, but her brain knew what to do with the information, so she went on instinct, putting the other pede down and attempting to stand. Which was far more difficult than it should have been.  
>Honestly one would think she was having some kind of very awkward dance with the way she wiggled every which way.<p>

After much effort, she stilled, finally able to get in some sort of balance, now, they did say the first step was always the hardest..." she looked forwards, and with her arms outstretched, she took the first step, tumbling to the floor with a loud thunk.

"Sweetspark? Are you all right?" Prowl called from behind the door, no doubt they had heard.  
>"Mind your own business!" she snapped, making an effort to pull herself back up with a huff.<br>It took her four falls, but at last she had reached that accursed couch, and let herself lay on it in exhaustion.

Prowl and Jazz waited outside for more sounds, when they called again and received no answer, they deemed it safe to peek inside.  
>Sure enough their creation was in recharge on the couch, wrapped up in the blanket in some sort of makeshift dress, looking thoroughly out of it.<p>

It took Jessica a few days of getting used to the fact that she was going to be staying 'naked' for a while, and it took some time to trust her two uh..._creators_ again. Though both had insisted on it so much, and were so willing to help her learn to walk again that she had to eventually give in.

She noted with some sadness, that she was starting to get used to them calling her Lyric, and that her body began to feel more and more familiar, like at some point, she knew she couldn't live in another other than the one she was in now.

Today was a bit different however, today she was getting her 'armor' at last, this meant, no more hiding whenever someone came into the room, no more making sure that there was a crack in the blanket showing her hidden form.

The problem was getting to the medbay, she would not, under any circumstances, walk out in the halls in that state, nope, that wasn't happening.

Which was probably why she wasn't walking at all, and rather hitting Jazz's back with her fists while cursing him to hell and back as he carried her over a shoulder.

"Let me GO!" she yelled, trying once again to roll off the shoulder, only to be skillfully put back to where she was previously again. It was literally impossible for her to find a way to get off.

"Ya know, yer jus' atractin' more attention to yourself by screamin' right?" Jazz told her with his usual swagger, his mood not ruined by her tauntrum.

"we've already given the order to clear the hallways Lyric, no one will see you" Prowl said, trying to keep his patience and cool, over all that screaming it was a miracle he did.  
>"Tell that to the cameras!" she snarled, glaring at one as they passed by and giving it a rude gesture of the middle finger. Wether or not cybertronians knew what that meant, she didn't care.<p>

"The cameras are shuttin' down as we go" Jazz assured "Prowler made sure o' that, no one's gonna spy on ya."

Still the young femme growled, optics darting to the sides of the hall suspiciously, expecting to see someone coming at any time. She pulled at her blanket as best as she was able to cover her head as well, sulking the rest of the way.

They were all too relieved when the medbay doors opened for them, and they were out of the excruciating experience.  
>Now they could just leave Ratchet to deal with lyric's warth, as she would snarl or hiss at him whenever she was suspicious of anything.<br>Miraculously, Ratchet actually had a huge patience for youngsters, or at least as huge as it could get.

He was patient enough to wait for her to calm down, snapping back at her whenever she did the same to him.  
>It was sort of like their own language, which was a bizarre idea for the two autobots waiting anxiously.<p>

Ratchet huffed when he finally made his point, and the young femme only sulked in return.  
>"Now, if we can get on with this, I would like for you to wear this armor today." he said moving off to bring a cart. "Its not that far off of what humans do with clothing. You can put these on and off easily, though keeping them on will be most beneficial for you." He continued "the only difference is how you apply them to yourself, latches in most cases. Although some parts, like the chest pieces, are usually locked by codes, to prevent anyone from reaching your spark. Other areas with this type of armor system would be your crotch and hip platting, as well as your doorwings."<p>

"Why the doorwings?" she asked curiously. The other two parts of her body, she could guess by now, but the doorwings? Were they some kind of sexual thing or something?

"Because doorwings, are highly sensitive, they function as scanners in a way, and because they are so sensitive, they can create strong emotions from their owner. Because of this, some lesser cybertronians see it fit to use it to control others." he said walking closer to Prowl and Jazz, more specifically to Prowl.  
>"For example" he grabbed the praxian's wing without warning. Immediately Prowl's body language froze up, one of the wings going down, and the other trying to pull away from the hand that grabbed it.<br>His back arched down, almost in a submissive gesture.  
>"Ratchet! I would very much appreciate you let go of my doorwing and not use me as a lecture subject!" he said with an uncharacteristic growl.<p>

Despite that however, he weakly pulled away from the hold, but Ratchet didn't let go, and there was little else Prowl did to stop him.

"Its very easy to take advantage of these appendages" he carried on as if Prowl had not spoken "They're easy as it is with the locks on, you can imagine without them.

She nodded at this, understanding.  
>"Got it, never leave my back unguarded."<p>

Ratchet then let go of Prowl, leaving him to his mate who moved to comfort his abused doorwing.

"Good, you're learning fast. Lets get you started on that armor then."

For about two hours they worked on getting her armor on. It wasn't that it took long to do it, Ratchet could have easily put it in place under five minutes, but instead he was making sure that she learned which pieces when where, why and how, so that he would never have to do it again.  
>Every once in a while either Jazz or Prowl would give some input on a piece or another, and by the time they were done, she couldn't recognize her old new body, over the new new body she wore now.<br>Her paint job consisted primarily of ebony black, with some orange details here and there.

She wasn't quite sure how to feel about it. Really how was she to feel about having wheels as part of her body? Sexy? Ugly? Regular? She didn't really have a concept of what was good looking or bad looking on a cybertronian point of view, and seeing as there were no other females around...

"I have also made this for you" Ratchet said, pulling out a smaller box. "I noticed you were putting a lot of effort and stress into figuring out your inner systems and working with everything, and it will take some time, possibly even years for you to fully adapt to it. "Wheeljack came up with the idea, and constructed most of it, I just applied the medical programming it needed to adapt to you specifically."

"What is it?" she asked, looking down curiously, trying to figure it out by the shape of the box, which didn't really tell anything.  
>She failed to notice her creators's anxious looks, as they watched with anticipation.<p>

Ratchet popped it open, revealing a piece of glass, one clean and shiny visor in it.

Without realizing it, her doorwings perked up a bit in interest, signaling her aproval.  
>"This little device can help you sort out all your systems with more ease, usually we make these for bots with either optic problems or for those who have far too many software installed." Ratchet explained, holding it up for her to take.<p>

"I see..." briefly she wondered Jazz's reason for wearing his.  
>She examined her new visor, flipping it over in her hands carefully, it was made of...crystal? Maybe? She wasn't sure, it certainly wasn't glass. It bore an orange color to match the markings on her armor.<p>

After a few moments, she looked back up at them, as if uncertain, Ratchet waving her off.

"Well go on then, try it on!"

"Do I just...? How does it attach...?"

At this point, Jazz couldn't help himself anymore, and moved forwards to help her.  
>"Here, lemme give ya hand" he offered, taking her hands.<p>

She let out a little gasp when her hud shut off for a moment, but then came back on as usual, looking more spacy and organized than before.

"All right, I need you to follow the little light with your visor please." Ratchet spoke, appearing in front of her, waving a little glowing object.

She did as ordered, the medic giving a satisfied huff, before straightning himself, how he knew she followed it while wearing that visor over her optics, she didnt know, but somehow he knew.

"It looks a little bit odd ...but I suppose its just my first impression" she said, looking around the room, taking in the details. This visor seemed to be able to catch them a lot better.  
>"By tendency, Cybertronians don't invest on their optics too much, as we move around mostly by sensors." Ratchet explained. "On your case however, I guess its understandable to give you a visor."<br>Jazz's hands were on her shoulders now, and they squeezed a little when Ratchet said that.

"Ya feelin' good ta walk back?" He asked her, as she shifted to get off the berth.

"Yeah... I'm good. Thank you Ratchet."

"You're more than welcome, just don't get yourself damaged again anytime soon."  
>"I will try not to trip over my face yes" she agreed with a small bit of amusement, as her creators made to guide her out.<p> 


	15. There is something going on

Hi everyone! I only now realized just how many reviews I've been getting, and they really help my muse, thank you so much for being there! Remember, reviews feed the writter :3

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><p>Jazz and Prowl gave their creation a few more days after the last trip to the medbay, to allow her to recover the rest of the way, and to learn to move around with the extra weight.<p>

They soon realized that that was beginning to be a big mistake, as she started growing bored with the larger hours she spent awake, roaming around their quarters, finding meager tasks to do.  
>She had probably memorized the room by now and every item in it.<p>

Today was particularly unsettling as she sat on the couch, glaring at the vid set, foot bouncing rapidly in the air while a finger tapped on the opposite forearm in a nervous fashion.

The two traded nervous glances, silently wondering what to do about, discussing every option expect the one they were most reluctant to accept, and the most likely.  
>They needed to let her out.<p>

It was around noon by earthen times when Jazz couldn't take it anymore, always the first to give in when it came to their creation. He got to his pedes, and lightly stepped over, trying to look as casual and cheerful as he usually was, while hiding the anxiousness inside.

Lyric glanced his way briefly, before returning to glaring at the screen.  
>Jazz rested his servos on his hips, considering her for a moment, there was no beating around the bush with her, painfully straight to the point she was, just like Prowl.<p>

"Lyric? Mind sparin' a moment of yer infinite patience?" he tried cheekily.

With a huff, she reached for the remote and turned off the "tv" looking back at him defiantly, expecting him to speak his piece.

He chuckled, taking a seat next to her.  
>"Cool it girly, Ah was jus' gonna make ya a proposal."<p>

"What kind of proposal?" she asked, visor dimming slightly, signaling her suspicion.

"Well, seein' as yer feelin' better now, an' ya clearly need ta burn off some energy, we were wonderin' if ya would like ta have a go aroun' the base? We can't take ya outside yet, but it'd be good fer ya ta get used to the base other than our quarters..."

She sat there scrutinizing him long enough to make him uncomfortable, and when he thought she wasn't going to dignify him with an answer she finally looked away with another huff, her armor puffing proudly.

"Fine."

"Great! Ah know Blue's showed ya aroun' before, but ah figure it'll be a bit different seen from our perspective."

"Other than the tiny and giant difference whats so special about this time?" she said dryly, allowing herself to be dragged away from the couch. Prowl was shutting down the console at the desk, ready to leave as well.

"Well there's a lotta stuff ya can do now. Like the rec room, or the trainin' room."  
>"Lovely, a disco and a gym...just what I always wanted" she said rolling her optics behind the visor.<p>

"Its not a disco" Jazz said with a pout.

"Only sometimes" Prowl corrected him "when we have something to celebrate about, which we haven't had in a long time." He seemed pleased with that however "as for the training room, it is not a gym, its a place for us to keep in shape and train the new recruits, or it was when there were new recruits, these days they are mostly used for us to perfect each other's skills. It is essential for our survival."

"Right right I get it..." she said with a sigh as they walked out, Jazz staying behind a little to lock the door. "I'm just going to make a fool of myself and be socially awkward." she grumbled as she stepped into rhythm along with Prowl.

"To be frank, I am still socially awkward amongst the crew myself. The same cannot be said about Jazz however." he said, briefly looking back as his mate trotted over with his usual cheer. "But it is good for you to meet others, we can't keep you locked in our room forever after all."

She hummed thoughtfully, the comment putting her processor in a muddled pile of thoughts, she hadn't fully come out with it yet, coming to terms with her body was hard enough, let alone wonder the rest.

Now seemed the right time though.  
>"What IS going to happen to me? You've said before that I can't go back to living amongst humans, so..."<p>

"No need ta worry 'bout that yet, ya jus' focus on adaptin' fer now" Jazz said, crossing his arms behind his helmet.

"I can't adapt if I don't know what I'm supposed to adapt to though" She retorted. "I don't like the idea of just...existing. Of just being in a room all day and do nothing."

"When the time for it comes, you will be given the choice to chose what you wish to do with your life, within the limits of course" and at her glare, Prowl rose a hand to stop her from speaking "And we all have to abide to these limitations, it isn't just you. Its not like we all had dreamed to work in the army since younglings."

"Fine..."she huffed as they passed the crew quarters hall "So what ARE my choices and my limitations? I have to work for the army?"

"Everyone here has to contribute in one way or another. That doesn't mean however that you have to fight. I myself do not see the heat of battle as often as Jazz for example, as most of my work is organizing, managing and tactical planning."

She rose an optic ridge, then looked at Jazz.  
>"And you do...?"<p>

Jazz grinned cheekily, looking confident. "Special ops, ah do the dirty an' risky work. Although many times ah gotta deal with the borin' paper work too." he grumbled that last bit.

"It would not be as bad if you did not procrastinate as much" Prowl countered.

"Says the mech whose pile of paperwork never ends." The other said playfully.

Prowl chose to ignore his little comment in favor to returning the conversation to his creation.

"In any case, before you mentioned your interest in being a police officer, perhaps you can find your equivalent of that here." he suggested, noting how her visor brightened ever so slightly more.

"And what would you have that would be an equivalent of it?"

"Bit of a mix up, since we defend the motto of "serve an' protect" Jazz commented "Ah guess patrolling, guard duty, security would be some o' the choices?" he looked to Prowl looking for the others' confirmation, which came in the form of a nod.  
>"All plausible."<p>

"And I would be allowed outside if I took patrols?" both mechs stiffened at the question, realizing their mistake.  
>"Perhaps, patrols work with teams or partners, they require fast mechs who can get to and from quickly to warn anyone else."<p>

"But I would be let outside" she said, an unsettling grin forming on her faceplate.

"If you succeed training for it." he agreed wearily.

"I think I'd like that." she said, her bad mood seeming to evaporate at the simple idea of going outside again.

"Ya gotta remember tho, we can't show ourselves like this on the outside of our grounds."

"Why HAVEN'T you yet by the way? It looks like you've been on earth for a while."

"The humans. Their representatives have agreed to let us stay on your planet peacefully and fend off the decepticons that might cause trouble here, but forced us to live in seclusion for it, so as to avoid a mass panic. We had agreed to slowly work into preparing the humans for our revelation, should the need arise some day, but it has...gone slowly." Prowl explained.

"A.K.A. They're not so keen on givin' up their toys to the public." Jazz input with a frown.

"I figured as much, I never heard anything to do with you guys, not even hints, nothing that feels like a "preparation". So why don't you just leave the planet?"

"For a large amount of reasons." Prowl said slipping into his statistics mode. "Lack of resources, lack of mech power, our ship needing repairs, not having anywhere to actually head to, and the ability to hide our creations within the humans, giving them some form of shelter from the Decepticons."

"Woah wait! Theres more?" She asked, quickly stepping in front of them and spreading her arms to stop them, looking them in the optics.

"To which do you refer?" Prowl asked confusedly, while Jazz hissed, realizing what had happened.

"creations, you said it in plural, there's others like me out there?" There was an edge of hope in her voice that twisted at Prowl's spark with guilt.

"Ah... yes. Four more" he said curtly, trying to recommence their walk.

"Where do they live? Do I know them?" she said quickly keeping up. "Are they nearby? Do they know?"

"Far from here, no, no, no." He said in order, looking uncomfortable with the subject, his armor tightening.

"Aren't you going to get them?" she asked surprised, feeling confused.

"Sweety..." Jazz started wrapping an arm around her shoulders, guiding her along their walk. "No. They're hidden, an' they will be while we can keep it tha' way. Ya were unfortunate enough to have been found out, but Ah doubt the cons will be lucky a second time at findin' one of the other two."

The downcast look on her face was more and enough to make them feel guilty, she turned away and continued to walk, as if they hadn't had the conversation, except now her body language sagged and expressed her disappointment.

"Lyric..."Jazz pleaded as the two followed, he was resisting the urge to reach out for her, but the warning look Prowl gave him, stopped him.

"Its fine...lets...lets just pretend we never talked about this. I'd rather do that" she said, without looking back.

They kept on walking quietly the rest of the way, her creators stepping up in front of her when they reached the recroom, in an instinctive way to protect her from the many mechs inside.

She immediately felt self conscious with all the optics landing on her, and followed after both mechs with her head low, one hand covering the side of her face, while the other was wrapped around her front.

Jazz and Prowl for the most part acted as if they didn't notice a thing, even though they were acutely aware of everything.  
>"Prowl! Jazz!" They turned to the voice who called them, spotting Bluestreak at a table, by himself, taking his energon. That was perfect.<p>

They changed direction to join him, always making sure that Lyric would follow them.

"Good morning Bluestreak" Prowl greeted.  
>"Mornin' Blue!" Jazz did in his own way, plopping down into a seat, prowl following to sit next to him.<br>Lyric got the hint and reluctantly sat next to Bluestreak on the other side.

"Good morning! I wasn't expecting you guys to all come out so soon!" the young mech said excitedly.

"We figured that it was due time that we did" Prowl replied easily, used to his younger brother's constant blabbering.

"Well I'm glad for you!" Bluestreak said, flashing a warm smile at Lyric, who looked away, feeling a little embarrassed of the attention.

She was acutely aware of all the mechs in the room sneaking glances towards them. "Things have just been so chaotic lately without you to keep everyone in line Prowl! Not that Jazz is doing a bad job, he does a fine job, but no one does it better than you do, except maybe Prime, but that's Prime for you and-"

"Prowl! Jazz!" Ironhide's loud gruff voice shouted over the crowd. "Prime's callin' for a meetin', its urgent. He wants both of ya there."

"Well that's strange..."Jazz commented "usually we'd commed..."

"It must be important then "Prowl agreed, getting up from his seat, he then stopped briefly to look at his creation, a look of conflict forming in his features.

"I can stay with her" Bluestreak offered promptly, startling the young femme. "You don't have to worry about a thing, we'll just hang out a bit." he wrapped an arm around Lyric's shoulders to enhance his point.

The two parents switched glances, a quick conversation going on between them.

"Very well...but Lyric, as soon as you feel uncomfortable with anything, you can call on one of us." Prowl agreed, giving his creation a 'and I mean that' look.

She nodded hesitantly. "Alright...I think I can handle a few hours with Bluestreak."

Prowl then made his way to Ironhide, who waited impatiently by the door. Jazz made to follow, but stopped for a moment to come back and kiss her atop the helm, before hurrying off, leaving a very flustered femme behind with her uncle.

"So," Bluestreak started "How's things?"

* * *

><p>"They WHAT?!" Jazz voice repeated loudly through the meeting room.<br>"That...cannot be possible...the likely hood of them finding another one was of 1.47 % success rate..." Prowl added, stunned.

"I'm afraid not." Prime said, his hands intertwined, his chin resting above them. "The Decepticons have successfully identified another of the hidden younglings. Blaster has just confirmed this through the radar. They have been wondering too close to Hound's and Mirage's creation. They were already dispatched to go and keep watch for now."

"How could they have possibly known though? We made sure to separate them and keep our distance. No one but ourselves and the human government should know about it." Prowl mused, analyzing new possibilities.

"We thought that finding Lyric was just by chance..." Jazz agreed.

"It is possible that we have an inside source among us." Perceptor suggested, to which Jazz quickly shook his head.

"Ain't no way. We've been hangin' 'round with this crew too long, besides, mah department would have noticed by now."

"Actually that is technically not true..." Prowl interrupted, still thinking over the possibilities of how this could have happened.

"Prowl?" Prime inquired. Accusing someone of treason was a big deal, he trusted Prowl's judgement, but sometimes the mech failed to see things beyond logic that drove others to being loyal.

"I hate to say it, but we should consider an inside source...perhaps on the human side of our alliance."

A heavy silence fell, no one liked that idea.

"How likely is that?" the prime demanded, his optics paling at the thought, they had given everything to the humans, all they could allow themselves to give anyway, trusting them with their creations was the highest point of rust they could have given, to be betrayed in this way would be catastrophic.

"87% chance." Prowl spoke, his words sounding almost like a sentance. "They know our location, they know the youngling's locations, up until recently the cons had never known where our base was located, nor where our younglings were or that they even existed. As Jazz pointed out, our crew has been together for too long, it would be far too easy to notice an insider. The risk would be too high, while with the humans, the risk is minimal.  
>"In other words, there might be a spy within the humans, giving the decepticons all the information they require."<br>"Why would anyone do a stupid thing like that?" Ironhide grunted, displeased with the idea. "S'not like megs ta make a deal with organics an' honor it."

"Perhaps...but the humans are only vaguely aware of this, enough to try their luck." Prowl countered "there is also the possibility of doing so unwillingly, under a threat perhaps."

"We need to find out if this is the case then, WITHOUT the humans knowing so." Prime concluded. "Jazz, I know its bad timming, but I need the best I can get on this mission, plus you are more aware of the humans's habbits than the rest of us."

"Ya can count on meh boss bot" Jazz said with a firm nod.

The meeting went on for a few more hours, and then there was urgent work for both of them to do.  
>Prowl had briefly commed Bluestreak about taking care of Lyric longer, only to be surprised when his young brother told him it was fine and that they were having a fun time together.<br>With that easing their conscious, each went to their own departments, there was a lot of planning to do, and a lot of arrangements to be made.

* * *

><p>Ironically, Lyric found herself having a good time with her strange uncle, he had a thirst for talking, and boy were there stories to tell! Bluestreak knew everything, he kept on going from story to story about the bots on base, mostly focused around her parents, himself, his friends, and his other brother Smokescreen, every once in a while he would speak of Prime as well.<p>

It was nice to know a little bit more behind the bots she was just getting to know, it made it easier to understand them.  
>"And then-" Bluestreak struggled to breathe, laughing so badly his vents were overworking. "and then, he all but grabbed his batton, you know, those old enforcer battons? Like the human police has? Okay, so- haha- he grabbed that dusty old thing from under his desk, jumped over it, and went all Thor on them!"<p>

Lyric giggled from across him, trying to picture Prowl doing so, calm and collected Prowl...overreacting because of a prank.

"He what?!" she clutched her middle section, shaking with hysteria.  
>"I know! Sunstreaker and Sidsewipe were letting off small electric shocks for a whole week!" Bluestreak giggled. "Here I have a picture." He said, pinging her with a file. She was still trying to get used to this, Ratchet had given her enough firewalls to accept wi-fi based files, though she was still forbidden from directly connecting to any console or...bot. She wasn't sure if that was disturbing still.<br>Sure enough, she opened the window, and her optics started tearing, she tried to hold it in, she really tried, but the sight of Prowl jumping over his table with a shock batton in hand, going straight for a very frighted pair of twins was hilarious.

She all but threw herself back against the seat, laughing out loud so bad she fell to her side on the rest of the long seat, while Bluestreak joined her with more controlled laughter himself.

"Whats so funny?" Lyric couldn't even look up at whoever had just arrived to find them in their state, Bluestreak however made an effort.  
>"Bumblebee! Sunny! Sides! Oh nothing, just sharing a few memories." Bluestreak said with a cheeky grin while Lyric tried to recompose herself, as soon as she saw the twins however, she couldn't hold it, and broke into laughter again, Bluestreak still trying his best not to follow behind.<br>The twins exchanged looks between each other. Of all the reactions they expected her to have when seeing them, this was certainly not it.  
>"Uh...what kind of memories?" Sideswipe asked wearily, knowing all too well Bluestreak's tendency to talk about things he shouldn't.<p>

"Shocking ones!" Lyric said all too suddenly. Bluestreak broke down into fits of laughter again, high fiving the young femme.

"Shocking ones?" Sunstreaker intoned, optics narrowing.

"For some reason I get the feeling they don't mean it like THAT Sunny..." Bumblebee input, blinking confusedly at the two. "What have you been telling her Blue?"

Bluestreak had to recover once again from his fit of laughter, heaving as he tried to make out the words.  
>"The batton incident"<p>

Instantly, the pair of twins cringed, subconsciously reaching for their afts as if they could still remember it.  
>This only served to get them back into fits of giggles, Bumblebee actually joining them this time.<p>

"Haha...Blue..." Sideswipe said dryly. "Its not as funny when you're in the receiving end."

"I'm sorry!" Bluestreak said, trying to hold back his giggles "but its still funny to everyone else!"

Sunstreaker snorted "Of course it would be..." he muttered.

"Aw c'mon guys! I'm just trying to get her to know the crew better. If it makes you feel better I have also told her about other bot's humiliations" Bluestreak said cheekily.

"What...kind of stories again?" Bumblebee asked, abruptly stopping his giggling.

"Oh he's been telling me EVERYTHING" Lyric said, her face so flushed from laughing they thought it was going to melt. "EVERYTHINNNNNGGGG" she tried very hard to make it sound dramatic, but it only got skeptical looks from the others.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you gave her high grade Blue" Sideswipe noted as they started to take their seats.  
>Bluestreak shrugged. "Sometimes you don't need highgrade to be this happy."<p> 


	16. the wrong words and the right ones

Thank you everyone who reviewed this story! It means a lot to me and feeds my motivation to keep writting it!  
>I don't write often enough how much I apreciate it, so I am doing so now U.U<p>

I hope you enjoy this chapter, it was a bit of a struggled, but I got there.

ps. I forgot to mention previously, but I changed Bluestreak's status from cousin to uncle.

* * *

><p>When Prowl was finally finished with his work, he was startled by the hour that it was. He had been so busy, without having a single moment for a break, that he did not even notice the time pass by.<br>It was late, quite late in fact, Jazz would be long gone on his mission by now, and Lyric...Primus he had to go get her.

She should have gotten her ration hours ago, and it was too far past recharge time.  
>He knew she wasn't a little child that couldn't take care of herself, but he HAD left her in a public area, when she was clearly uncomfortable with the idea, surrounded by strangers, save Bluestreak.<p>

Not to mention that she was still recovering, and needed plenty of energon and recharge.

-Bluestreak, this is Prowl. I deeply apologize for having taken so long.- Prowl commed – How is Lyric doing? She must be furious with me.

-Oh hey Prowl! Nah its fine, Lyric's not angry. She fell to recharge a few hours ago, and yes I remembered to get her some energon.- he said before his elder brother could ask. - come by the rec. room, we're waiting for you.

Prowl was already doing so, though his mind was on Bluestreak's words, trying to figure out what he meant.  
>When he got to the recroom he understood.<br>Bluestreak was at his usual spot by the leisure area, sitting on one of the big couches with Sideswipe on one side, focused on a videogame, while Lyric was on his other side, asleep and leaning onto his side.  
>On another of the couches was Bumblebee and Sunstreaker, both competing against Sideswipe.<p>

Of course...Bluestreak tended to spend some time with his friends around this hour to play videogames, he should have figured as much.  
>"Prowl, there you are" Bluestreak greeted him, waving a hand cheerfully. "She's just as I told you, sleeping soundly." he said gesturing for the young femme who surprisingly would not wake to all the noise.<br>"I appreciate you having watched her so long Bluestreak." Prowl said, moving around the couch to inspect his creation, she seemed fine, there was an innocent smile on her face.

Bluestreak waved him off. "pft. Don't mention it, I'm your brother, you know you can count on me for these things. Besides she had a really good time I think, we talked a lot, told stories, played some games. Slag I think she even had fun with Sunny and Sides here."  
>Sideswipe grumbled something about unfair playing and vicious femmes.<p>

Prowl arched his optic ridges. "Is that so?"

"Yep, tired herself out." Bluestreak agreed with a chirpy smile, one he only gave when he was in a REALLY good mood.  
>Prowl shook his head lightly at him, and leaned down to pet his creation's helm.<br>"I better get her home then." he said, lightly shaking the femme. She mumbled something, then rolled, turning her back on him, doorwings splayed out in a relaxed and inappropriate manner.

Prowl frowned, trying again, only to have her slap at his hand, and still she did not wake.  
>From the side he could hear the twins snickering.<br>He gave them a warning look, promptly silencing them, before gently moving in to pick up the femme.  
>She wasn't that young anymore to be carried, but her frame was still that of her second last youngling frame, and small enough for him to carry.<br>It was however a little difficult to get a good grip and to hold her comfortably.  
>"I will be going then, good night" He said to his younger sibling, ignoring the twins's obvious efforts not to snicker him, and walking away.<p>

He was lucky, because it was so late, he did not find anyone in the halls, and was able to take his daughter back home without a problem, well except maybe the part where he had to put in Jazz's complicated codes while still holding her.  
>Once inside, he hesitated for a moment, looking at the couch where she had been camping lately, and then his berth.<br>Surely there would be no problem now that she had her armor?And Jazz wasn't coming for the night anyway.

Making up his mind, he made his way to the berth, and deposited her there, watching as she instinctively curled up, and palmed for a blanket.  
>Acting quickly, he went to get it from the couch, and covered her with it, the femme calmed down, and returned to her peaceful slumber.<p>

He watched her for a few moments, then turned away to look at his quarters, without Jazz it was always just so quiet here, but now at least, he had Lyric to keep him company.  
>He glanced at the usual stack of datapads on his desk, Jazz would have argued with him about continuing work if he were here, but he wasn't so...<p>

He moved towards his new goal, when a small noise stopped him, he turned back in time to see his creation move slightly in the berth.  
>He glanced between her and the datapads...perhaps another night.<br>He left them be, and made his way to his spot on the berth, surprised at how instantly the femme moved closer to him and snuggled against his chassis.

It was a simple gesture, if not still a little awkward for him, but after a few moments of doubt, he let himself relax, wrapping his arms around the young femme, petting her helmet.

Lyric's systems slowly began to boot up, but the femme felt too comfortable in her bed and refused to wake up fully just yet.

Where she was...it felt nice, warm, safe. It wasn't the kind of feeling that she got very often, and it was not one she would pass up.  
>A hand was petting her head soothingly, another resting on her back, in between the doorwings.<p>

Somewhere deep in her mind, she registered having felt this at some point in life, but she couldn't quite remember it.

Slowly her optics began to online, focusing on the white and black chest in front of her, waiting for her processor to put two and two together.

"I see that you've waken." Prowl's voice, she looked up to the mech, her face still portraying the recharge haze, something that made his spark tighten inside, it was such a precious sight, one he thought he'd never get to see. And for that, he managed to smile for her, if ever so slightly. "Good morning."

the femmelet blinked her optics lazily before she managed to mumble a semi coherent response in return.

She then yawned, rubbing at her optics, doorwings stretching behind her.  
>He chuckled, taking in every gesture, every little thing, now that she was starting to get to a more regular routinely lifestyle, he could see her tendencies. Prowl himself was not usually a lazy morning bot, Jazz on the other hand...well...sometimes it was pretty hard to wake him up.<p>

"I take it you recharged well?" He asked when she purred to his chuckle, nuzzling her face to his chassis. Yes she was definitely still half asleep if she was willingly nuzzling to him like that.

"I have to head to work soon" he informed her "I'm afraid Bluestreak cannot stay with you today, so you will have to come along. You will be able to recharge some more there if you wish."

She frowned slightly, checking her internal clock "its only five am..." who went to work at that hour?

"Yes, my shift is at 5:30." he clarified "So it would be best we get you refueled." He made to sit up, pulling her up with him. Yes, from her posture she was definitely not a morning bot. "I'll get you some energon, do try and fully awake yourself by the time I return" he told her, making sure she wouldn't just fall back into the pillows if he let go of her.

When he was satisfied, he stepped off the berth, and made his way to their private dispenser, sure enough when he reached it, he heard her fall back into the pillows.

He sighed to himself, at least, if he was correct, once she got her energon, she should start being more self aware, at least it worked with Jazz when he was carrying.

A cube was soon set on her palms, she faintly registered the pet on her helm as she murmured her thanks and brought the liquid to her lips.  
>It was still strange to drink energon, both because of the strange smell it had, and the shiny glowing pink appearance.<p>

As a human, you normally wouldn't drink liquids with odd colors, such as blue, green or pink.

Apparently that rule was very different for cybertronians.

The taste of it was...well...she was still figuring that one out. It was certainly like nothing organic she'd ever tasted before.

As her processor started to buzz to life, she noted Prowl still sitting next to her, watching her every move, an odd expression on his face.

Now Prowl wasn't exactly a mech that expressed much, and for that reason it was really hard for her to make it out, but it made her feel embarrassed and shy, forcing her optics to return to her cube and finish her morning meal.

She made to reach behind her ear and to pull her hair back, it was an old habit she had from whenever she felt shy.

Of course, there was no hair, and no ear this time, so the movement ended up as awkward.

It happened every once in a while, and she always felt a bit of loss whenever she was reminded of it.

Prowl took note of it, humming in thought.  
>"Does it distress you?" he asked, voice neutral as always.<p>

"Does what distress me?" she asked back, taking a careful sip of the remains of her drink.

"Your frame, the way you look" he explained. "I realize that Jazz is not always the most reserved of mechs, and might have gone a little overboard with your frame."

"Overboard?" she narrowed her optics "what exactly is considered overboard? Whats wrong with my looks?"

Prowl was taken a little aback by the defensiveness, before shaking his head lightly, reaching out to touch her cheek, making her look at him in the optics.

"Nothing is wrong. You are a very beautiful young femme, perhaps even too much, I feel reluctant to let you near the other mechs." The femmelet ducked her head at that, feeling even more shy than before.  
>"Really...? You think I'm..." she shifted uncomfortably.<p>

"Yes. And don't let anyone say otherwise." he said petting her head again, a thumb rubbing at the chevron in a comforting gesture.

"Even without hair?" Now that made Prowl backtrack. Hair? This was all about hair? He hadn't even considered it.

"Hair?" he repeated blankly.

"Yeah... I mean... I know you guys don't have any." she explained, fidgeting with the cube in her hands. "But to me... I mean to girls my age, within the humans, hair is...a very important part of our appearance...I don't have that anymore so..."

"Would you like to have hair again?" Prowl asked, the strange image of a cybertronian sporting organic hair was definitely not attractive in his processor, and even gave him a bit of chills.

"I can?" she looked up with hopeful optics, they pierced straight into Prowl's soul. If it made his creation happy...

"Well...something of the sort" he conceded. "We cannot give you organic hair...obviously there isn't even a creature on earth that can provide hair for your size. " she deflated a little at that "However, there are alternatives that may fufill your wish.

They are not so common these days, especially since most were used by femmes, which as you know, are no longer with us. But there were several decorative apparels before the war that we may be able to replicate for you, and may act as a replacement for your ah...hair." he explained.

"I guess...that's the best I'm going to get isn't it?"

"That is what I am able to offer you I'm afraid. If you are interested, I can look up for someone to fill you in on your choices. I'm certain there is more than one mech around who has records of such things."

"Like Sunstreaker?" the femme said with half a snort, half a giggle.

Prowl made a face, an actual displeased face, it had to be the most expressive she'd ever seen on him.

"Like Sunstreaker...although he would not be my first choice" he admitted, giving her a curious look "I take it you got along well with him and his brother yesterday?"

"I was a little on edge at them at first...but then Bluestreak started telling me stories about them, and almost everyone else here, and I guess I kinda understood them a bit more...and just let go a little, a second chance if you will."

"That is very mature of you" he praised, noting how her doorwings perked up. "Now, finish your cube, we need to leave soon." he said getting back to his pedes and heading off to his desk, he began to look around his datapads for something.

Lyric took that moment to relax a little, finishing her cube leisurely while her optics traveled around the room without any goal.

Then she noticed something...her attention peaked, she got off the berth and walked over to a mounted installation on the wall...

"Hey..." she called for Prowl's attention, he didn't look back at her, but made a noise indicating he was paying attention "is this your old enforcer gear?"

Prowl stopped for a moment, looking back at her, slight surprise in his optics, he glanced at the installation.

"Yes." he answered honestly, before turning back to his work "where have you heard about me being an enforcer? Bluestreak?" he deduced.

"Yeah." she answered, half paying attention, leaning closer to the glass to look at the shock batton displayed in there. "woah...its all scratched and used..."she said in admiration, doorwings fluttering slightly. "Hey, how many mechs did you get with this?"

Prowl stopped once again, to look at her, one doorwing tilting slightly in confusion "I beg your pardon?"

"How many mechs did you frag with that batton stick?" she repeated, looking back at him with a grin, only to let it falter when the mech's optics went wide and bright, a nasty noise coming from his head. "Prowl?" No response "Hey come on, Prowl? This isn't funny..." She moved over to him, and rested a hand on his shoulder, ready to shake him.

All too suddenly everything in prowl shut down, his optics going dark and the body giving in, barely giving her any time to grab him before he could hit his head on the floor.

"Prowl?! PROWL! HEY! What the hell?! Come on! This isn't funny!" She shook him, yelled at his audio, even pinched his doorwings. He gave no reaction, and now Lyric was starting to panic.

"Shit shit shit shit..." she cursed, leaning her audio to his chest, she could still hear the spark. "Ok, good. That's good" she told herself, looking around clueless, then her optics landed on the door, then back at Prowl.

She knew she wasn't supposed to go out...but god damn it, what else was she to do? Hurriedly she went to the door, and opened it, but upon running out she hesitated, and ran back in, grabbing a datapad and placing it in the middle of the doorway, not allowing the door to close.

From the inside opening that door was easy, from the outside? Well... they always locked it with a lot of security, so she needed it open.  
>She then ran off, trying to remember her way to the medbay.<br>Just when she was going to round around a corner, she crashed straight into someone, falling backwards on her bum, with a startled 'oof!'.

"Hey watch where yeh-Lyric?!"

Lyric didn't even have time to gather her bearings before a large hand grabbed her arm and pulled her back to her feet.  
>"What're ya doin' here so late? Where's Prowl?" She blinked, taking in the large buff looking (or at least buff from what she understood were their terms) mech in red. Her jaw dropped, she tried to speak, but failed for a moment. "Out with it" he said, crossing his arms, clearly he thought she was up to no good.<p>

"I...I...I...its Prowl." she managed to utter out finally "I d-don't know what happened, o-one minute we were just talking like normal a-and the next h-he was on the f-floor and won't respond. I -I was on my way to the m-med bay."

Ironhide blinked down at the youngling, comprehension downing on him. "Oh." was all he could manage.

"Oh?!" her voice squeaked, she stomped a foot, doorwings high in an aggressive V. "My dad just passed out on me, I'm freaking out trying to find the medbay, and all you can say is OH?!" her voice went to an uncomfortably high pitch.

"Yes, oh." he said calmly, raising his hands in the air trying to calm her down "settle down younglin'. He's fine." he said, grabbing her by the shoulders and turning her around towards the way she came, giving her a light push for them to start walking. "This is normal, its Prowl."

"How is it NORMAL?!"she countered, irritated.

"I'll contact Ratch' he'll come over ta fix'im in a klik, calm down" he rubbed at his audio, hurt from the volume of her voice. "He's had a crash, somethin' ya said to 'im probably didn't sound so logical to his processors. Its a glitch"

"A glitch?" she looked back at him haughty, that defiant and impatient look he'd seen in both her creators when they first joined the war.

"Yeh. Yer uh..." he hesitated for a moment "yer dad, has a glitch. Its um...like a nasty problem in yer head" he struggled to say it in a way that would make sense. "its cuz of his battle computer runnin' through his logic center, if ya tell 'im somethin' that sounds illogical, he'll crash, sort of like faintin'".

"Is that dangerous?" she asked, looking worried now, doorwings drooping down so fast it looked like it hurt. She was feeling guilty now.

"Only if left untreated, Ratch' keeps tabs on it all the time" he dismissed the thought with a shoulder shrug.

She relaxed a little bit at those news, then pondered on her words "I don't know what I said that might have caused it...I was just asking him about his old enforcer gear back at his quarters..."

"What exactly did ya ask?"

"Well...first I asked if it WAS that, he confirmed it and asked where I knew it from, I told him Bluestreak told me." she said, thinking over the conversation "then I noticed the damage and usage on the shock batton and...and I asked him how many mech's he'd gotten with it."

"Thats it?" Ironhide asked, sounding doubtful.

"more or less yes..." she nodded.

"How did ya phrase it?"

she frowned, looking a little embarrassed "I asked...how many mechs he'd fragged with the batton stick..."

Realization came to Ironhide, the mech face palming with his large servos, making the young femme cringe.

"That's why..." he muttered, oh boy...this was a doozey.

"Is it...is it because I cursed?" she asked, shrinking a little.

"Yes...an' no." he said, rubbing at the bridge of his noseplate "did anyone tell ya what 'frag' means?"

she shook her head quickly, looking a little startled and caught off guard.

"The guys yesterday were using it...kind of like a swear word... I kind of guessed it was something like busting something..."

"Thats slag, not frag...frag is..." Ironhide looked around himself helplessly, as if searching someone that could better explain this than him, anyone would do really! No one was around of course, it was the bloody hours in the morning. He sighed in resignation, looking back down at her. "Ah guess in human terms it would'a been 'fuck', so in the context ya put it..."

"Oh god..." she muttered, covering her faceplates in shame, turning away from him, her doorwings flapped distressed. "stupid stupid stupid..." she cursed to herself "I ...I didn't know! I thought- shit..." she banged her head on a wall nearby, as if that could help in any way.

"S'allrigh' kid" Ironhide said, pulling her away from the wall "Yeh didn' kow better. Now yeh know, lets get back to yer sire, Ratch's nearly 'ere" he said, pushing her forwards.

* * *

><p>Prowl slowly booted his processor out of a medical recharge, he groaned, slow medical boot was the worst, it conflicted with a lot of the survival programs they had gotten for the war, making a large inner conflict between programming.<br>As he came to he realized he was lying down in a soft berth, likely his own.  
>What had happened? He crashed... he knew that much, he was too familiar with it to not notice.<p>

He let out a low moan from the processor ache he could feel and onlined his optics, only to be tackled by something.

"You're awake!"

If it weren't for his medical recharge he would have reacted more violently to the attack, as it was however he could only grab the bot that pounced on him, only to notice that it was the smaller frame of Lyric. He instantly relaxed, noting how tightly she was clinging to him.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't know! I'll never do it again!" she blurted out hurriedly, shaking her head against his abdomen, he could feel the trickles of energon falling form her face.

Instantly his last memories returned to him, the mech frowning as he realized just what exactly had happened.  
>"Lyric." He said softly, the femme stiffening a little at his tight tone. "About that, what you said, do you realize what you were transmitting with that phrase?"<p>

The femme gave a slow nod.  
>"I-I didn't before... I mean..." she paused, struggling with forming a decent phrase. "I didn't know whne I said it, when you passed out... I ran for help, Ironhide found me and called Ratchet for me... he also explained it to me...so now I know...I swear I had no intention to insinuate such a thing... I didn't know that word was used for that purpose... I thought it was something used entirely different." she said with a hung head.<p>

Gently he rose her head to look up at him, her optics behind the visor looked regretful, full of guilt and remorse.  
>"It is all right, as long as you realize your mistake, and do not repeat it again." he said, gently pulling her back into an embrace, to his surprise, she easily sunk into it. "I am sorry to have frightened you, I was hoping that something like that would never happen when Jazz was not around to explain it to you."<p>

"Ironhide and Ratchet explained..." she said, brushing her tears away with her hand, sniffling a little "they forbade you from leaving the berth for today by the way, Ratchet said off duty for today."

Prowl was about to protest, but thought better of it, disobeying Ratchet wasn't really that wise, and that had been a pretty bad crash.

Besides, this way he got to spend some quality time with Lyric.

"I see... how long have they been gone?" he questioned curiously, surely they had not left her there alone with him for hours?

"Just a few minutes ago, they went to eat something I think."

"I see, give me a few kliks to dismiss them on the comm link." he told her, before reaching for the side of his helm, initiating the call.

:: Prowl to Ironhide and Ratchet, please come in.::

:: Well look whose gotten outta beauty sleep:: Ironhide's booming voice came through the line.

:: Far too soon if you ask me:: Ratchet growled. Prowl made a large effort not to reprimand the two for their lack of protocol when being addressed in a call.

:: My systems are running at 98% capacity now, I will no longer require your services. Thank you however for watching over Lyric...and...for explaining things to her, Ironhide, I realize it was probably not a pleasant experience.::

::Nah, think nothin' of it Prowl, kid was panickin', screamed a bit at me, thought she was gonna hit me for a moment, but it was all worth it.:: Prowl could almost see the smile on his face.

::How so?::

:: Well, the kiddo was a lil' angry when Ah' didn' react much when she told me you crashed, went on a protective mode, even called ya 'dad'. Ah'm sure thats hell'ofuh lot of progress in yer data.::

Prowl took a moment to process that, petting his daughter's helmet, who seemed to be calming considerably now, her head resting against his chest.

::I see...that is indeed a very large progress... thank you for informing me of it.::

::Again, think nothin' of it.:: Ironhide told him.

:: All the same, thank you. Prowl out::

And with that he disconnected, returning his attention to his daughter.

"Are you done?" she asked idly when he moved.

"Yes. I am sorry you had to deal with this on your own, I'm glad Ironhide helped you."

"Yeah...would have gone to Jazz but...where is he anyway?" Prowl's smile fell a little.

"He is out on a mission right now, it was a very sudden thing." he explained. "But that's usually the case with Jazz when he needs to go out and work. Being head of special operations makes him take up that duty when its so sudden and requires skill."

"Ah...so, what does special ops do?"

"It depends, mostly covert missions, intel gathering, infiltrating, sabotage, scouting, spying... some special groups however, are for particular missions, like missions no one else will take because they are mostly suicidal, that group is called the Wreckers. Other groups are meant for quiet assassinations."

she shuddered "whats that group called?"

"It does not have a designation. The Wreckers was...well, they are usually very special mechs, and at one point they decided to name themselves."

"So...Jazz does all of this?"

"Not necessarily, his skills expertise on some of them, and although he is very good at all of them, he focuses mostly on the ones he excels at, namely sabotage and infiltration."

"Its so weird...thinking of him like that...I guess I'm a fool for not having seen it earlier...this is an army after all, the mechs here are...well they're not kittens that's for sure."

"True" he said taking in a long intake, thinking it over "however, don't forget, we are also just regular cybertronian, we have just been pushed to do things we dislike, to protect the things we love."

His arms tightened a little around her, and he was pleased to hear a purr.

"Yeah... that makes it sound a lot nicer..."


	17. the breath of battle

It had been a few days since Jazz had left on his mission, Lyric had to often come along with Prowl to his work, which wasn't always the definition of "fun".

In fact, she felt a bit of pity for him, locked away in his office for hours on end, doing boring report after boring report, and when he wasn't doing that, he was at the command center, checking on things, speaking with the soldiers, or on tactical meetings planning their moves.

She dearly wished her sketchbook wasn't as tiny as her hand now... she could really have used with the distraction. Instead she had been given a few datapads with english/ cybertronian translations for her t start to learn.  
>It was not at all an easy task, however, she found out that she had programs to help her with memorizing the glyphs, which helped a little, still to remember how to use them properly was proving to be a challenge.<p>

Some bits of the language had the usual type of translations, but then there were some glyphs, that she found had meanings much more specific than the ones in english, and to top that off, some of them meant things she had no clue what they were, which made her have to investigate in a data center.

The best test to this practice was when she had to watch prowl work at the command center, directing instructions and reading other mech's screens, she would often try to read them herself.

As for speaking cybertronian...well that was going to take some time and proper teaching, she couldn't learn that very well from the datapads, she needed someone to correct her.  
>She did however try to listen to it when Prowl was at meetings, they supposedly spoke in their language to keep her from hearing sensitive information, or so she thought at first. Until she started to notice that it was simply that, unless they were speaking to her, they all tended to speak cybertronian to each others.<p>

On the odd occasion that she didn't know a word, and could not find it in any of the data given to her, she would ask Prowl about it, he didn't seem to mind, but his replies were usually... lacking any form of tone.

He would give her a useful and complete explanation to her question, and then return to his work in silence.

Today she sat in an empty seat at the command center, far away from anyone that was working while Prowl went around the officers, gathering the intel he needed and receiving more of those god forsaken reports.

Then suddenly, one of the officers, a large red and yellow mech turned around on his chair and called out to Prowl in cybertronian, he spoke in an urgent manner, everyone's attention in the room immediately was directed to them, Prowl's features hardened with seriousness.

They traded words, Prowl giving around orders in a quick and practiced fashion, then the siren above them began to blare, a voice spoke something, but all she understood was the word for autobots.

Lyric's spark tightened, watching Prowl expectantly, after a few minutes, he turned and walked to her at a brisk pace.

"Is everything all right?" she asked as he stopped in front of her.

"I'm afraid not, we have a mission, off base" he explained. "I want you to stay here with Blaster" he motioned for the red and yellow mech he had just spoken to "listen to what he says and do not disobey, understand? I will return in a few hours if all goes well."

"You're leaving base?" she felt a tinge of anxiety from that, first Jazz and now Prowl? "what happened?"

"We fear one of the other creations has been discovered, her guardians have just called for back up, I'm sorry I have no time to explain it further, please follow my directions, and behave. This won't take too long." he said petting her atop the head, a rare almost there smile showing in his features.

"R-right..." she said, uncertain how to take the information. "Please be careful?"

"Always" he told her before turning to leave, a group of mechs quickly following suit.

She watched them, the room quickly becoming almost empty, falling into silence, the siren stopped blaring.

Hesitantly, Lyric got to her feet, and approached the mech called Blaster. He looked busy, plugging and unplugging cables to a console, glyphs flying by his screen at an insanely fast rate.

"U-um...P-prowl told me to stay with you?" she called out hesitantly, she didn't know this mech.

He started a little, then turned around to her, blinking his optics once before a wide grin spread through his face.

"Yeah kitty cat, ol' Prowl's busy righ' now, so yer stuck with meh till he comes back, dig?" his english accent was strongly reminiscent of Jazz's, and she wondered for a moment if there was a reason for it. "Why don't ya take a seat there?" he said motioning for a chair one of the officers had left empty in order to go on the team.

She nodded, moving off to said chair and sitting down. The mech's grin only grew impossibly wider, before he returned his attention to the screen.

"Um... do you know whats going on Blaster? Prowl didn't tell me much." she asked hesitantly, she had no idea what kind of temperament this mech had.

His grin quickly twisted into a worried frown, the mech not taking his optics off the screen.

"Situation's bad, we've been monitorin' one of the hidden creations for a while now, cons were getting' too close ta comfort. We got a report jus' a while ago, warnin' us her cover was blown, no doubt the cons are gonna make their own move now ta get 'er."

"H-how did they find her? I thought... I mean Prowl and Jazz said that they were all really well hidden, and that finding me was only just sheer coincidence."

"Well, dun' look like a coincidence ta me." He noted "too close to yer own incident, same target..." he mused, humming melodically. "its almost as if they knew, dig?"

She nodded slightly, looking at the screen cluelessly.

"So...what are you doing? Are you like... part of communications or something?"

"Yep, ah'm chief of comms in fact" he said, winking at her. "s'mah job ta keep everyone connected and send an' receive data, also ta keep the cons outta our signals."

"Oh...so, technically, you'd be the one bot here who would know the going ons first hand huh?"

"Pretty much yeh" he said giving her a weary glance, before something on the console distracted him, he quickly plugged in an extra jack, speaking in cybertronian to who ever he had just connected to.  
>A broad smile spread through his faceplates as he called out the mech on the other line, one of the few which Lyric had learned the name of in cybertronian: Jazz.<p>

Her spark brightened a little, hopeful to get some news on the mech, she waited at the edge of her seat for blaster to finish the call.

Then suddenly, Blaster's features changed from the happy expression to a very serious and concerned one.

He ended the call, and unplugged that jack, moving off to do something else.

She really didn't want to interrupt his work, but she wanted to know.

"How's Jazz?"

The mech didn't even pause what he was doing. "He's on his way, ordered base ta lockdown as soon as he's in. wants our spacebridges shut down...but ah can't do tha' when Prime's team is out..." he said worriedly, starting up another call.

Jazz was back? That was good news, some form of relief came to her that she didn't even know she needed.

Watching Blaster work for a moment, she looked around the room, getting up to her feet, everyone was working hard on what she assumed were the communications if Blaster shooting directions was an indication of it.

She wished they had monitors in there, to see Jazz arriving in base, but those were located in the security office...which red alert rarely ever let her into, even when Prowl tried to convince him.

Idly she looked at the door, her mind fantasizing going out on her own to greet him, but Prowl's orders were firm in her mind.  
>She was to stay here with Blaster...but surely Jazz was a better option? It wasn't like Blaster was really watching her anyway...and it wasn't like she'd get out of base.<p>

Slowly she inched towards the door, testing Blaster's attentiveness.  
>He didn't make any indication that he had seen her move away.<br>She slipped a foot out the door, waiting expectantly for him to say something, nothing, he just kept on with the comms.  
>With that she stepped out completely, the door shutting behind her, she waited for a moment, expecting to hear someone shout at her, but nothing came.<p>

With that pumping her spark with excitement, she rushed off, away from that door, taking in her surroundings and trying to make out the best path around.  
>One of the advantages of having to follow Prowl around for days was that she got to memorize the base a little better, and by now she was fairly sure she knew most of her way around the place.<p>

Now, Jazz should either be arriving through the actual entrance of the base, or through one of those portal things they called space bridges.

Since Blaster had said they were to shut the space bridges down, she guessed that that area would be filled with mechs that would certainly tell her off.

So she started making her way to the actual entrance of the base, starting to feel that familiar calling to her spark.  
>Using it as her compass, she hardly had to worry about the path, and more about the mechs on the way and avoiding them.<p>

When she could feel him close enough, his presence felt startled, reaching out to her questioningly.

~ Lyric what are ya doin'? Where are ya?~ His voice made her spark skip a beat, a certain amount of guilt hitting her momentarily, she slowed down a little on her track, considering his question.

What WAS she doing? She was supposed to wait with Blaster...its not like Jazz wouldn't have come to them eventually!

~ I...~she couldn't think of an answer, and it disturbed her, she had reacted to some form of order from her instincts, and not from rational thought. Looking around her, she noted that she was by the storage bay. ~I'm by the storage...I...~

~Wait there~ it was a firm order, some bit of anger coming with it, he sounded and felt tired.

This time she did do as told, leaning against a wall and waiting, her processor went over the question again: why had she just left like that?

When the black and white mech came around the corner, she felt like shrinking, he didn't look happy, not at all.  
>"Yer in big trouble missy." he said roughly, walking to her in a brisk pace, his form was rigid. "What were ya thinkin'?! Yer supposed ta be at the command center!"<p>

she flinched at his tone, optics on the ground, she couldn't bare to look at him.

"I... I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me... I don't know why I left without telling anyone...I just..."

The mech waited, his arms crossed over his chassis, his lip plates set in a thin displeased line.

"I don't know...okay? Blaster just told me you were back and I..."she looked to the opposite of where he was, unable to understand her own explanation.

There was a sigh from the mech, before he moved over, she flinched, half expecting him to at least strike a harsh slap or some form of scolding, but what came instead was quite the opposite.  
>His arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a warm embrace, her head tucked under his chin.<p>

"Ah missed ya too girly...but ya gotta control that urge next time. This ain't no time for ya ta be takin' risks."

Her spark beat so strongly inside, she feared that it would start playing drums with her platting.

"You're not mad? You're not going to punish me?" she asked hesitantly, sinking into the embrace gratefully, it felt so right, despite everything she knew.

"Mad? Oh ah'm mad, ah'm pretty darn furious righ' now, but yer punishment's gonna have ta come in later, yer so grounded yer never gonna consider doin' this again" he said seriously, moving her to his side so that he could begin walking with her back to the command center. "This is serious, we're about ta have the cons strikin' our base any klik now an' yer jus' wonderin' about unprotected."

A part of her deep down wanted to protest, arguing that he had no rights to ground her, even if technically he did, but the majority of her reasoning was that if she kept quiet now, then there was a chance she could minimize the punishment.

"How did your mission go?" she asked after a while as they hurried through the halls.

"Not good" he said with a frown, his gaze kept shifting to every direction the halls would take, paranoid, he was definitely alert. "We're in a tight spot righ' now." he said curtly.

"What do you mean?"

"We're bein' betrayed sparkles." he said, not looking at her. "not by our own, by the humans. They've been leakin' info out ta the cons."

"What? The humans are...?" her expression fell, looking at the ground regretfully "I guess... I'm not too surprised...it fits humanity's nature... I can see the government doing something like that." she took a moment, thinking it over "so what now?"

"Now? Now it ain't safe, fer you, fer us, fer no one." he said "Now we're bein' forced ta take extreme actions" and just as he said it, the siren began blaring again over their heads.

All too quickly Jazz's grip on her tightened, the mech hurrying his pace into a run, forcing her to keep up.

His hand was on his audio as he barked out orders in cybertronian to someone, this was an entirely different Jazz from the one she was slowly growing to know. All of the liveliness and joyful personality was gone, to be replaced with a mech that was all too serious about his surroundings, and although he wasn't displaying it now, Lyric could see an aura of violence about him, something about him at that moment just screamed at exactly how capable he was able to do things beyond what one would want him to.

She couldn't quite tell why she saw that in him, maybe it was the way his armor puffed up, or how dim his visor had gotten, maybe even the absence of his ever present smile.  
>This side of Jazz frightened her, and she hoped that she never had to deal with him like that.<br>Jazz's grip on her shoulder tightened a little in reassurance, as if he had felt her fear. She felt a wave of 'sorry' coming from his side of the bond.

All too suddenly he changed directions, hurrying his pace, practically lifting her off the floor, his free hand now covering her mouth to prevent her from letting out any noise of protest or surprise.  
>A hall's lights went out, and Jazz went to it decidedly too quickly, slipping into the shadows quietly with her, crouching on the ground where there was less possibility to be seen.<br>~Turn your optic and visor brightness down~he instructed her quietly, doing the same himself.  
>Hurriedly she searched for the controls in her hud and did so, watching as the mech turned his attention to the lighted hall they had come from.<p>

Soon large mechs started to come into their sights, but had entirely missed their presence in the shadows, she watched as Jazz seemed to be gearing himself up for a fight, his fingers had quietly transformed into vicious claws which he flexed in expectation.

~If anythin' starts, Ah want ya ta sneak around back, an' hide in the closest room ya can go into, lock the door from the inside~he instructed.

~ B-but... won't they follow? Won't they check all the rooms?~

~Ah'm not lettin' any con through~he said firmly ~ Ah jus' dun wan riskin' ya getting' a stray shot, an' ah don't want ya seein' this~

The cons at the bottom of the hall were shouting orders at each others, seeming to be in a disagreement.

Jazz reached into his subspace, taking out a small round black object.

~ I don't like this, lets just both go back into a room and hide. Maybe they won't check~ she suggested, reaching out with a hand to rest on his back, his plating was cold, and oddly still, unlike her own which was trembling.

~Can't do that girly, we'd be backed into a corner and caught. Now Ah'm gonna set off a smoke bomb, ya got about five seconds ta hide. An' if worse comes ta worse...~he reached to his foot, disengaging a piece of the armor and bringing out a hidden dagger, pushing it into her hand ~Jus' in case...~

Before she could protest, the cons at the end of the hall divided into separate groups, three of them heading their way.  
>Jazz took that as his cue, throwing the little ball ahead, the noise attracted the mechs attention as it rolled to their pedes, then exploded with the hissing noise of smoke.<p>

~Now! Go!~Jazz told her before dashing forwards into the cloud of smoke.  
>Lyric didn't argue, now was the worse time for arguing.<br>Turning on her heels she dashed the opposite direction, trying every door she came to until one finally opened, allowing her in, she could hear blood curdling screams and shooting coming from behind, but didn't even look back.  
>She practically threw herself inside the room, finding it to be someone's messy quarters, she quickly looked around for somewhere to hide and opted for under the berth, which was covered with a thermal blanket, perfect for covering it.<p>

Crawling under it in a hurry, she laid down and waited, listening in to the fight just outside and gripping at the dagger tightly.

She couldn't feel Jazz's presence anymore, but from the noise of the fighting she knew he was still there somewhere.

The battle took a few minutes, the shooting became less, the screaming was practically non existent now.

Then there was a yelp of surprise, and everything fell silent.

She waited for a good few minutes, before attentively reaching out through her bond, searching for Jazz.

~J-Jazz?~

she was rewarded with a feeling of warmth, mixed in with a hidden tiredness.

~Ah hear ya girly, Cons are down.~

~Are you all right?~she quickly asked, rising a little under the berth and accidentally hitting her head on it.

The answer took entirely too long to come.

~Yeh...jus...jus gimmy a klik an' ah'll come an' get ya...~ that carefully hidden tiredness was quickly becoming very noticeable, and through it she was starting to feel a faint feeling of pain.

~You're hurt! Hold on I'm going over there!~

~Lyric no! Stay where ya are, ah'll be fine in a klik.~

Lyric did not listen however, crawling out from under the berth and hurrying out the door, she saw his silhouette at the bottom of the hall. Hunching slightly and leaning against a wall like he was about to fall to the floor.  
>Three bodies rested in her path, motionless, blue energon was splattered across the once clean hall, now full of marks from gun shooting and the smoke bomb.<p>

Hesitating for only a moment to pass by the dead bodies, she hurried over to Jazz, growing more concerned as she noticed a wound on the side of his hip, pooling out energon.

"You are hurt!" she hissed, afraid of being overheard "What were you thinking keeping that from me?!" she said hurriedly moving to help him stand, clearly he was too near to not being able to hold his own weight.

She didn't quite relate to how cybertronians hurt, but she guessed the wound he had did not at all feel like a scratch.

"Yer not supposed ta have come out of hiddin' yet" he scolded in the same lowered voice, allowing her to help him.

"I don't care! You need help, and waiting around here like that isn't going to be good to either of us." she said leading him back down the hall towards the room she'd found.

She thanked who ever was watching over them that the floor had so much energon splattered around, for it covered their tracks a little since Jazz was literally bleeding out.  
>She helped him into the room, and sat him on the berth she had hidden under, pushing the blanket aside.<br>He sank into all too gratefully, resting his head back against the wall with a sigh.

Pursing her lips at his actions, she sat next to him leaning down to inspect the wound.

"What are ya doin' girly?" He asked, his voice sounding slightly broken from the strain.

"Seeing if there's anything I can do to help" she said, looking clueless at the torn cables and bent metal, broken pieces of mechanics messily meshed together by the heat of a shot.

The energon was coming from the cables, and from what little she understood before when Ratchet was telling her about body functions, cables were one of the most important parts of the body, similar to the importance of a blood vein.

"An' since when are ya a medic?" he said with bitter humor, wincing when she tried to push a line away slightly to see better.

"sorry...and I'm not...but I should at least try and stop this bleeding somehow right?"

"Heh...yeah that'd be nice... we dun' have any clamps though" he said, his voice growing weak. "Reach in to mah pocket will ya? The one on mah left" he said, motioning with his head.

Carefully she did so, reaching in.

"What am I looking for?"

"First aid kit...should be in there...somewhere..." she noted that his visor was steadily growing dimmer, she hurried to try and look for something that looked even remotely to a first aid kit.

She found instead an insane amount of blades and small little gadgets, none which looked any helpful.

"I can't find it... are you sure this is the right pocket? What does it look like?" The mech's answer didn't come, so she looked back up to find his visor was shut down, her spark tightened impossibly, making her feel like she'd throw up."Jazz?"

Again she received no answer, the mech was still, she shook him gently "Jazz! Please answer me! Jazz!" the mech didn't even react, and she couldn't reach out to his side of the bond.

"No...please...please don't leave me!Please! Jazz! Wake up!" her voice wavered "Don't leave me alone again..."


	18. The first shot

Lyric didn't know how long she'd been there, clinging to a mech's cold body and quietly crying, begging for him to return in a small voice.

It took everything she had to try and regain some control of her emotions, leaning onto his chest to listen for a spark beat.

To her relief, it was there, faint, and barely heard, but definitely still there.

Now the hard part, she couldn't find his first aid kit, and she almost certain she wouldn't have a clue how to use it anyway, so she needed to get a medic, Ratchet, of maybe just one of his students, any medic would be better than none! Pulling herself away from the offlinning mech, she turned towards the door hesitantly.

There would be Decepticons out there...possibly even more than the ones Jazz had just killed.

She had no fighting skills, her best chance of survival was to outrun them, which she wasn't sure she could do, given that she was still getting used to her current body.

Looking back, she knew she had no choice, Jazz needed this. She returned to his side, and as carefully as she could tried to drag him off the berth and under it, hiding him where she once had hidden.

She then looked around for something to clean the energon stains with, and proceeded to cover his tracks, it wouldn't do to leave him there, vulnerable to anyone who stumbled inside.

When she was just about done with cleaning the stains, she heard a noise, outside in the hall, voices, snarls...

They were coming...and they would find them if she didn't hurry.

Throwing the rag away where it wouldn't be seen, she made one last check to be sure Jazz wouldn't be found before moving to the door, she stopped.

She could hear them perfectly, broken words she barely understood, her spark was beating in a frenzy, a mixture of excitement and fear inside as she got ready for what she was about to do, she took in a deep intake and reached for the control panel. A moment of hesitance, and then she pressed it.

She ran out and stopped to look at the cons, giving them just enough time to see her, to make sure they'd follow, before running as fast as her legs enabled her to, towards the other end of the hall and turning around the corner.

Shouting came after her, along with the quick sounds of pedes, they were following.

Her processor began to work out on her plan as she ran through the halls.

First she needed to lose these guys, get them far away from Jazz, then, she needed to go to the medbay somehow and get a medic.

A laser shot flew just past her, grazing her hip, she felt its heat as it had passed by. Now they were shooting at her, great, she thought they would have wanted her alive, but apparently injured would do just fine too.

She turned around another corner and tripped on something on the floor, falling on her face on top of something uneven.

Quickly gathering about her wits, she noted she had tripped over a dead body, the hall she'd come into had a few of them, and the signs that a battle had recently taken place here.  
>In front of her, in the mech's servo, was a gun...and something clicked inside her mind.<p>

Without thinking twice, she grabbed it, prying it off the cold servo and scampered back onto her feet to regain some distance between the approaching cons.

She rounded around the next corner and took cover, quickly looking over the weapon, trying to figure out how it was supposed to work. She peeked over the edge and saw the mechs coming in.

No thoughts were running in her mind, she was going on pure instinct as she primed the gun and aimed, taking the first shot.

The weapon was slightly heavy, and a bit uncomfortable to hold, which made her aim waver, but at least the stray shot had stopped the cons in their tracks as they dove for cover. She did the same, going back behind the wall, for a moment she considered, they would approach her carefully now, if she went back to running it would give her enough time and distance...

swinging the gun's strap around to rest on her shoulder, she quietly moved away a few steps, listening in to the mechs talking to each others, or possibly even her, she couldn't tell.

Soon, she felt it was safe enough to start running again, taking in her surroundings and changing her direction as needed.

As she went further and further she began to hear the sounds of another fight, definitely not the same as the group that had been tailing her.

"GIVE IT UP DECEPTICREEPS! HAND OVER THE KID AN' NO ONE GETS KILLED!" Ironhide's booming voice shouted over the noise, strangely in english.

Her spark tightened, a shot landed on the wall further ahead in her hall. If she was lucky...she'd be on the bot's side of the fight... inching to the edge, she crouched down to be at low level and peeked over the edge.

Damn it, she was of course on the wrong side, two decepticons were hiding behind some machinery attached to the wall.

Across from them, she could see a hastily formed barricade of berths and cabinets, where the bots were taking cover.

The two cons barely fit in their hideout, and were holding something, a small form, a girl.

Lyric's spark tightened, realization downing on her. That was very likely the new creation...and they had her...just like they had gotten her...except this girl seemed to be conscious still, and was crying in shock at the whole situation, likely panicking.

Lyric's visor dimmed as she slowly pulled away from the edge, her processor trying to clear her thoughts to think.

They were afraid to get out of their hide out, it would risk them getting shot, but once they'd realize that they had no choice, they would make a break for where she was... and they would get away with the girl.

Her hands rested on the gun swung across her chest, she looked down at it, not exactly thinking, not considering, she just knew...and she was accepting it.

She took the strap off, and held it firmly in her hands, taking in a deep intake.  
>She peeked over the edge again to confirm her target, good, they hadn't noticed her yet.<p>

The risk here was that the autobots might spot her and mistake her for a con.

And she also risked hitting the creation if she wasn't careful...

she stepped away from the edge once more, and moved away from the all, trying to get herself in an angle where she could see the cons, but not be seen by the autobots.

She was counting on the fact that they were too focused on the autobots to notice her.

She raised the gun, and looked through the scope, aiming at their heads...it was brutal and cruel, but it had the least risk of getting the creation killed.

She hesitated for a moment, her finger testing the texture on the trigger nervously.

Then the con suddenly turned his head her way, their optics met, and instinct took over.

She pulled the trigger so fast she didn't even remember doing so, the shot met its target straight in the forehead, a hole remaining there as his frame fell limp, dropping the young girl to the floor.  
>The other con however, had more time than his partner to avoid the next shot, and lyric less time to aim better, so she had to dive for cover again.<p>

Lyric leaned against the wall, taking in deep breaths as she realized what she had just done...she had shot someone...she was pretty sure she'd KILLED someone. She wasn't a killer...

"What the frag is going on here?!" Ironhide's voice could be heard. "Kid! Get over here! Quick!" He ordered the young girl. They took a few shots, someone else's voice shouted "stay back con!"

A shout of pain was heard as one shot hit its target, the sound of a body falling to the floor meeting her audios.

"He's down!"

"Hold it! It ain't over yet" Ironhide's voice interrupted them "Come out with yer servos up and behind yer head and yer weapon on the ground!"

Her spark was triggered with fear, she knew he meant her.  
>Reluctantly, she set the weapon down, and slid it across the floor and into the open hall.<br>Then straightened herself and putting her hands behind her head, she stepped out.

"Don't shoot!" she called out "its just me."

On the other side of the hall, Hound was picking up the small girl from the floor, checking her over, about five other mechs were there, their guns aimed at her.

Some of them she knew, others she didn't.

Ironhide, and smokescreen she recognized, as well as Sideswipe, then there was a completely red mech with an alarming cannon barrel coming from his midsection, and another blue red and white whose armor suggested he had a racing type of alt mode.

Ironhide and smokescreen quickly lowered their weapons.

"Blimey, Lyric..." he said in relief.

She took that as her cue, and ran forwards to them.

"We lost contact with Jazz, we thought you two were gonners" He admitted, Smokescreen moved ahead of him and as soon as she was in reach she was pulled into a tight hug.

"Prowl will be relieved" he told her, petting her back. "What are you doing on your own? Where's Jazz?"

That alone brought back everything back, all her emotions crashing down, tears dropping from her optics.  
>"H-He's hurt...some cons followed us...he fought them off, but he got a pretty bad wound- on the hip -" she tried her best not to stutter as she cleared her thoughts enough to say what she needed to say "I hid him, he's in one of the solder quarters...I'm not sure which...it was messy, I hid him under a berth, he needs help! H-he was bleeding really bad...a-and passed out on me, I couldn't get him to wake up...so I came looking for help"<p>

"Sh...its all right Lyric, you did well" Smokescreen told her gently, holding her close.

"T-then some cons returned...I think they heard the noise... I ran out and tried to get them away... I lost them a while ago before I found you"

"Smokescreen get'er back 'ere!" Ironhide called "Before the rest o'them come."

Smokescreen nodded, pulling at the young femme to follow with him.

"Its all right, we'll call Ratchet's team, they'll go help him. Come on" he sat her down behind one of the barricades, only now was reality crashing down to her, before she didn't have a chance, didn't have a choice.

She had just locked away all worries and feelings, and done what she needed to to survive.

Now she was safe..she trembled, her armor rattling, her legs would have given in if she hadn't sat down.

"Sideswipe, Smokscreen, yer both on guard" Ironhide ordered them as hound handed the young girl to his servos. "We'll hold'em off."

Smokescreen was trying to calm her, petting her helmet, making her look in his optics as he whispered to her.

"You did really good, its over now. You don't have to run anymore."

"I-I killed someone..." she said shakily, the thought making her tanks lurch in disgust. "I k-killed..."

"You didn't kill him, you incapacitated him" he assured her "a shot to the head like that isn't going to kill him, you would have had to completely blast the head off or shot him in the spark. And to top that off, you saved that little missy's life" he said, motioning for the girl sobbing in Sideswipe's hands.

"H-He's not dead?"

"No." Smokscreen repeated firmly. "Now, I'm going to call Prowl, he needs to know you're safe, okay?" she nodded.

"T-tell him about Jazz too."

"Yeah... I will." he said, reaching for his audio to start up his call.

Slowly, with the hours, the base was recovered, the cons pushed into retreat.

It had taken waiting behind their makeshift barricades, it had taken some fights, it was a game of who could wait out longest.

Ironhide's team had managed to keep her and the other creation safe, the little one had calmed down some, and had demanded to be put down, she now sat on the floor, not too far from Lyric.  
>Sideswipe and Smokscreen sat across from them on the other wall, they were resting a little, their weapons ready should they need to jump out of recharge. The others were setting guard by the barricade.<p>

Looking down at the small look alike organic, she took in her appearance for the first time...

On the chubby side, this creation had brown hair, short and now completely messy. She wore a shirt and some jeans, all in all she looked like a fairly regular human.

"Whats your name?" she couldn't help but ask her, after a few moments of observing her.

The little girl started, then looked up at her with big round eyes, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"G-gabby, I mean, Gabriella..." she answered in the smallest of tones.

Lyric took it in, before reaching over, offering a finger.

"I'm Jessica." Hesitantly, the human looked at her finger, before accepting it and shaking it as a greeting. "I used to be like you" she explained, looking at the confused expression the small being gave her.

"Yeah...its complicated...a few months ago I had a human body of my own, I went to an art school, I had a dog, my own room..." she sighed, thinking about it, it felt like a distant past now.

"W-what happened?" Gabriella asked, some edge of curiosity in her voice.

"Same thing that's happening to you. The Decepticons came for me...the autobots brought me here to be safe." she shrugged, trying to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal."Eventually I had to...change into this...my true form." she said motioning for her body, thinking that perhaps it was best to leave her decepticon kidnapping out of the conversation.

"A-am I going to have to change into a body like that too?" Gabriella asked meekly, looking Lyric over critically.

"I suppose...they let you wait it out though, let you get ready." she explained. "its not as bad as it looks...Okay maybe learning their language kinda sucks right now, but its just a phase I think."

"Learning their language?" Gabriella's eyes went wide again.

"Yeah...these guys speak really odd. Its a pain in the ass to learn." she chuckled

"D-do you ever regret it? Do you ever want to go back?" the girl asked her, looking timid.

"Yeah...a lot of the time I do. I don't regret becoming this though, but I do miss things from my old life. The cons are coming for you though, for you, and for me, so the sooner you change into a new body, the better I think, at least you have a better chance to defend yourself."

"How long have you been here?"

Lyric frowned, actually having to think of that one "you know what? I don't know...a few months I guess... it was mid summer when I came..."

"classes started weeks ago." Gabriella said in shock.

"Wow...and I haven't handed in my essays"

they both chuckled lightly at that.

"Anyway...just so you know... I know what you're going through...and if you need someone like that, I'm here to listen to you. Girls stick together right?" she offered weakly.

"T-thanks..."

"You're welcome"

* * *

><p>It was a few hours more, the two had somehow managed to fall into unsettled recharge. Lyric had only realized a little late when she was being carried by someone, held tightly against someone's warm chassis.<p>

She blinked her visor online, meeting a familiar black and white paint job, looking up, she was met with Prowl's neutral features, the mech carrying her off somewhere.

"Prowl..." she called drowsily.

The mech stopped momentarily, looking down at her with a concerned expression before it smoothed out into relief.

"You are awake, I apologize, I was trying to move you without waking you"

"That's okay..." she yawned "is it over...?"

"Yes, for now." he agreed, continuing on his way.

"and...Jazz?"

"Ratchet tells me he is in the medbay, he has finished fixing him two hours ago."

"So he's going to be all right?"

"He will take some time to recover, the type of injury he suffered can be debilitating, and it hampers his type of ability severely."

"I see..." she looked around them "where are we headed?"

"To the medbay, I figured you would wish to see him as much as I did, and I wish Ratchet to have a look at you as well.

"I'm fine. No one managed to touch me."

"I am glad, still I will ask Ratchet." He walked quietly for a while more "I am glad that you are safe, and despite everything, I'm proud of what you've done, Jazz would have probably not survived if you hadn't gone to find help"

"Its the least I could do...all things considered. I wish I could have been more help."

Prowl stepped up to the medbay doors, they opened, allowing them entry, they were met with groans of pain, and some light whispering.

Prowl looked around the room and then quickly made his way to where he spotted Jazz, lying on a berth with some monitors hooked to him.

He set her down to stand on her own, leaving her to watch him while he went to get some chairs.  
>Lyric stood next to Jazz's berth, watching his peaceful expression as he slept. Meekly she reached out for his clawed servo, tracing it lightly with her own fingers, taking in its texture, its sharpness...they had been cleaned from the energon that soaked them hours before.<p>

Prowl soon returned, resting a chair behind her and setting another next to it for himself.  
>"Sit..." he told her gently, a hand pulling at her shoulder.<br>She did so, never letting go of that dangerous hand.

"I realize you told me you had suffered no damage but..." he paused "Are you feeling well? This couldn't have been an easy experience."

"I..." her lip plates pursed "I shot someone... " it was a thought that kept going around and around in her head. "in the head...Smokescreen said he didn't die but...I shot someone..."

"For a better cause, according to what I was told." he said calmly.

"How can you be so calm about that? I meant to take out a life...I meant to murder someone."

"Forgive me...I suppose after so many centuries of war I have...grown immune to most of it."

"You got used to killing?"

"Do not understand me wrong...this is a war we are battling, mechs die. I am the one that sends them out on missions, I am the one who has to take into account how many die because of my plans. After years, war...changes us, changes us into things we would rather not be, but need to be." she nodded, understanding what he was getting at. "It is not ideal...but our hope is that, one day, we will end this, and be able to return to a peaceful time, where you can continue growing up and have a normal life like you used to have" he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.


	19. Evacuation

Jazz slowly came to, that horrible and familiar feeling of medical recharge dissipating slowly, letting his systems come up one by one instead of the usual all in one go that a special ops like him required.

Before he even onlined his visor, he could already feel the dizziness coming to his head, an unpleasant lurch in his fuel tanks, threatening to make him purge.

A soft hand rested on his shoulder, keeping him down in case he attempted to sit up.

"Easy now..."

"Prowler..." there was no mistaking the familiar voice, and the soft touch he knew so well.

"You are in the medbay, the battle is over for now." Prowl informed him. "You took considerable damage to your hip, Ratchet doesn't want you using it for a while, until the self repairs finish the rest of the work."

"Lyric...she..." Jazz blurted out, his last memories coming back to the forefront of his meta.

"she's right next to you, in recharge. She wasn't harmed." Prowl soothed him.

Still Jazz had to see her for himself, finally onlining his visor, he looked down to see her head resting against his good side, her hands clasped around his clawed one, her position on the chair didn't look all too comfortable.

"Poor kid...didn' want 'er ta see meh like tha'" he said, lifting his hand carefully and resting it on her helm, tenderly petting it, despite the sharp tallons.

"She was rather upset." Prowl agreed "Though we both knew it would come up eventually in the future."

"We were jus' hopin' it wasn't so soon" Jazz agreed with him, watching as she didn't even flinch from his touch.

"she...also took some initiative yesterday." Prowl started, sounding careful on what he was attempting to say, it only served to sharpen Jazz's attention on him. "After you passed out, some decepticons aproached your hide out, she took it upon herself to lead them away and to get you a medic." he explained. "somewhere between this she shot a mech with a gun she'd found, it seems to have disturbed her greatly."

Jazz let out a sigh, looking away from both of them and to the rest of the medbay, taking in everyone he could see that was recovering there.

"'Course she was..."

"In any case, after that incident, she had managed to join Ironhide and his team, and stayed with them until the ordeal was over." Prowl said, leaning back against the chair, his doorwings spread wide to accommodate him better. "However, I do not need to begin to tell you how...precise this attack was.

Taking over our space bridges, a virus messing up our security net, invading the base at a time where most soldiers were out." Jazz didn't turn to him, his lips pursed in a thin line. "What did you find out Jazz?"

His mate did not answer him for the longest time, Prowl waited patiently, he knew he was just thinking over the information himself.

"Ain't no easy way ta put it Prowl..." Jazz started.

"So...it is as we feared." the praxian noted, taking in the other's tone. "we have a human infiltrator."

"Worse." Jazz said, letting out a breath, his hand regaining its petting motions on lyric's head. "it ain't jus' one or two. It ain't even a special organization." Jazz explained, turning to prowl, the praxian's optics had gone so dim he barely looked online. "the government itself, they're the ones behind this. They dun' know we know yet, but they're playin' us Prowl. They got a deal with ol' Megs himself. Ah managed ta intercept one o'their calls. Had Soundwave's code written all over it."

"That is grave news..." was Prowl's only comment, his tactical computer going over the situation and their options.

"we gotta get 'em all back home Prowl, as soon as possible, an' then, then we gotta leave." Jazz stated, he didn't need the logic computer to know.

"I am aware...however doing so will not be easy. We have the advantage that the humans do not yet know that we are aware."

"Ya gotta tell Prime, we dun' have much longer before they take action. They LET us get to this last creation, so they could invade the base, they're not gonna let us get to the other three."

Prowl nodded at this, getting up from his chair, pausing for a moment, looking at Lyric's sleeping form.

"I will leave her with you, I trust she will not leave you alone so soon." a small smile teased his lips. "I will return once I have free time again."

Jazz chuckled at his comment, sending an affectionate brush over their bond.

Prowl responded in kind, before turning around, and leaving swiftly.

Jazz was contented to stay there, just watching his creation rest.

He could hardly bring himself to think he nearly failed to protect her, because on top of that thought, he now knew what she'd done for him, he knew how much she cared, even if she didn't dare say it yet.

It was the second time she had risked her life for him, but at least this second time, she hadn't done so without a fight.

It was wrong, but it filled his spark with pride to be her carrier, to have brought this wonderful spark to life.

He and Prowl had had many doubts when they first thought about having a sparkling, centuries of doubts in fact, they had waited so long for it, always with the thought that, someday the war would be over.

After the loss of their home planet however, after the loss of almost their entire civilization as far as they knew, they realized that they needed something to continue living for, their morale had been so low, the war seemed like it would never end, and that was when new life made all sense.

Something to protect, something to love, something to live for.

Lyric might not have been at all what they expected, in fact, she was probably everything opposite to what they had expected.

Not only had she turned out to be a femme, but against Prowl's hopes, she had turned out with a lot of his characteristics, his logical thinking, his passion for justice, even her frame type. Of course she also had perks from Jazz, though not the ones he'd wished for.

She was creative, and curious, and while those were two things he enjoyed a lot about her, he had hoped that she would have been more social, and maybe even into dancing, which as far as he knew from all their years of watching her, she had never actually done before excluding some ballet lessons which she had despised and honestly sucked at.

Despite all faults and traits, they couldn't love her more for what she was, and the more they got to know her, the more they enjoyed it.

Lyric's doorwings twitched slightly, her systems began booting up, she shifted slightly under his palm, letting out a small grumble.

"Mornin' sunshine" he greeted with a wide grin, watching as she drowsily lifted her head, and slowly blinked her visor online, taking him in for an astro klik, before straightening up all too suddenly.

"J-Jazz! You're awake!" she said startled, then seemed to realize her own reaction and recomposed herself. "I m-mean, how are you feeling?" she ducked her head, looking down embarrassed of her outburst.

He chuckled, waving her off.

"s'cool girly, ya dun have ta act so proper 'round meh remember? I'm all righ', Ratch did a good job." he said brightly. She nodded at that, still looking a little embarrassed "Now, come're, ol' Jazz thinks ya deserve a reward fer savin' his aft" he said, opening his arms in invitation.

The femme looked at him like he'd grown an extra head, before squirming a little in her seat, looking reluctant as she got up and reached over to accept his hug.

Lyric was still awkward around open signs of affection, it bothered them, but there was nothing they could do other than to keep getting her used to them.

It was as if every time she was expecting it to be a trick and get hurt for it.

As soon as she was within his reach, he wrapped his arms around her form, and carefully pulled her to join him on the berth.

"Ah! Jazz! Don't open your wound!" she said, flustered as he forced her to cuddle next to him, resting her head under his chin plate.

"s'fine girly, Ah'm bein' careful." he said, pecking a light kiss atop her helmet, hands petting her back as he held her close, he let out a happy sigh. "In fact, ah feel ah'm already healin'" he teased.

Lyric's face heated up "idiot... you shouldn't put strain on it..."

"So glad ya care tha' much" he said happily, noting how she tensed.

"O-of c-course I care!" she pulled her head away to look up at him with firm optics, he lips in a thin line "you could have died yesterday! And it would have been my fault! You would have died and left Prowl alone, you would have made a lot of others sad to see you go too!" Jazz's smile stayed, though it felt a bit lighter, a bit sadder. "You shouldn't throw your life away like that! Not for something so stupid!"

"Yer not a stupid reason ta die for Lyric" he said calmly, all the mirth missing from his voice, he could see the surprise in the glint of her visor, she was not expecting him to say that.

"No... I'm..." she looked down again "I'm just a responsibility... I'm not... I'm no one important, I'm not someone anyone would miss, I mean, look at my human life... has anyone even bothered to know that I'm gone there?"

"Lyric...dun talk like tha'." he lifted her head up to look at him in the visor, trying to transmit as much of the truth as he could " Yer not a stupid reason, yer the whole reason Prowler an' Ah are still here, why we're still fightin' ta live, why we're still able ta feel emotions. We would have been lost to the war long ago if it weren't for ya." he pulled her back into the close embrace, petting her head as she rested it on his shoulder. "Even though we had ta send ya away, we went to see ya all the time, we couldn't stay away, we watched ya grow up, regrettin' not bein' able ta be there for ya, not bein' able ta give ya all the love an' support we were more than willin' ta share. Ah know things didn't go too well for ya, ah know yer all awkward about hugs an' kisses an' cuddlin'. That ya think we're gonna betray ya at any moment an' leave ya all alone again." he felt her stiffening, he knew he had hit the nerve, but it needed to be said. "We're not, we're never gonna let ya go again, yer mah lil' girl again an' I ain't ever lettin' go this time, ah love ya too much ta lose ya again." he heard her intakes hitch a little, feeling her armor trembling, a warm drop of energon fell on his shoulder, she didn't let out any sobs, not even a whimper, but he knew she was crying, and he let her, holding her close and sending as much of his love as he could to her spark.

It took only a few minutes, he felt her spark fluctuating between doubts and hopes, even when she eventually let out a shaky breath, making to straighten herself.

"I'm sorry." she said, brushing her hands over her faceplates, quickly cleaning them of any evidence "I'm sorry, that shouldn't have happened"

He smiled, raising a servo to brush a cheek, cleaning away a spot she'd missed, he relished in how she leaned onto the touch, her visor dimming a bit.

"Quit bein' so proud...its all righ'." He said, making her look up at his own visor. "Ya ain't gotta hide no more."

"I'm sorry...its just...a habit." she said, her doorwings drooping a little bit.

"Ah know it is, a habit ah aim ta correct." he said, not letting his smile fall once. Lyric liked to act strong, liked to look tough. He knew she had had to be like that before in her life, dealing with somewhat neglecting parents, dealing with bullies at school, being socially awkward certainly did not help. And on the rare occasion she did manage to make a friend, she was protective of them, she would be their pillar and support, but she had never had someone do the same for her, as far as he knew, and it showed.

"Now" he started to change the mood "Ah've been gone from base fer a while, an' ah'm more than willin' ta bet ol' Prowler's kept ya busy." she gave a slight nod, letting him carry on "Mind fillin' meh in on whatcha been doin'?"

She tensed a little, her gaze fleeting somewhere random as her cheekplates heated.

"Well... he's been having me learn some Cybertronian, mostly just the written text though, I've tried to learn a bit by listening, but I barely got any practice on speaking."

He nodded at this "What words do ya know how ta speak?"

"U-um...I... uh..."she shifted, looking uncertain "I'm not actually sure I'm saying them right...Prowl's been too busy to help me with it so..."

"Give it a shot anyway, Ah promise ah won't laugh much" he said with a chuckle, the arm wrapped around her form rubbing at her arm in encouragement.

" Well... I know _help,_ and _datapad_..." she tried the words out hesitantly, slowly, it was slightly slurred, but it was almost there. He nodded, motioning for her to carry on.

Looking a bit more sure of her self, she did. " _Autobot, Decepticon, Human, Youngling, Spinach-"_

"Spinach?" he asked curiously, watching her optics widen in horror.

"Did I say spinach?"

"Ya did... what were ya tryin' ta say?" he asked curiously, amused as she seemed to fluster at her mistake, very reminiscent of the few occasions prowl himself did a mistake like that.

"I was trying to say Earth..."

"Ah...that's _Earth_" he corrected.

"_Earth...?" _she repeated, trying it out, looking at him in question, and smiling when he nodded.

"What else?"

"Well...I learned some designations too, _Lyric, Prowl, Bluestreak, Smokescreen, Jazz..._"

His grin spread incredibly wide, his spark fluttering at hearing her say this original name in their own tongue. "A-and that's pretty much it so far...its hard to make sure I can say some of the sounds." she explained, her gaze once again moving away from him in embarrassment.

He pulled her closer, pecking a kiss on her chevron briefly, before resting his forehead against hers, forcing her to look directly into his visor.

"Its great progress as is girly, Ah didn' expect ya ta catch on so quickly, better watch out what ah say" he chuckled. "Ah realize Cybertronian ain't an easy language for ya ta learn."

"It...isn't, but I get the concept of it...I'm much better at reading and writing at the moment. Prowl has given me some exercises to work with so far, he seems...pleased with it, I think. Languages has always been one of the easy subjects for me at school"

He snickered, petting her helm and letting her go "Guess ya got that from meh."

"You're good with languages?" she inquired, relaxing a little.

He shrugged "more like cultures, its one o' mah passions, ta know new cultures, their languages, their music, their style, dig?"

she chuckled, a cute kind of sound to his audios. "Dig."

"Ya makin fun o'me?" he asked with a mock pout.

"Maybbbeee"

"Well Ah'll be, beat down by mah own creation" he said dramatically, relishing on her giggles. "Ah never thought Ah'd see the orn. What must ah do to correct this now? Oh! Ah know! Ah know jus' the punishment for such behavior" he teased, hands suddenly darting to her frame, reaching in between tight seams and... tickling.

Lyric squirmed and burst out in a fit of giggles, trying to keep his hands away from spots she didn't even know were sensitive that way.

From across the medbay, a young girl watched in silence, a small datapad in her hands long forgotten.

The medic, Ratchet, had given it to her, it was a file explaining the all too complex stages of building herself a body, what which part was for, meant to look like, and really, she couldn't get most of it, she couldn't focus on it enough, all she cared about in the end was what she was going to look like.

But the interactions between the female Cybertronian and one of the males had distracted her from thinking about it.  
>She wondered the relationship between those too, it was far too caring, far too innocent to be a love relationship, so she was guessing it was more like a parental type of thing.<p>

It gave her a bit of hope, even if it filled her heart with sadness, she missed her parents, her family.

She was in fact a very very happy person before she was brought into this mess, sure she was a little isolated from the world, she tended to stick to her family only, barely ever making any friends or even conversing with outsiders, and that had been the only flaw in her perfect life.

Now it was all gone, with that came freedom, but the price was too high, far too high for her, and she was still having trouble accepting everything, in fact, she couldn't accept it.

In the back of her mind, she kept thinking it was all just a dream, just a very strange and sick dream.

* * *

><p>It wasn't a surprise that movement had started again later that day, the autobots were all tense, in a rush, and at one point, a red and white mech whom she knew to be called red alert came by, telling something to Ratchet in a panicky manner before running off in a hurry.<p>

Ratchet turned to his medbay, all his apprentices and fellow medics looking at him expectantly.

He barked some sort of order at them, and they scattered, almost immediately they were deatching patients resting in their berths, making the berths hover and began to drive them out of the medbay.  
>At one point Ratchet picked up Gabriella from the spot she'd been left at, and brought her over to Lyric and Jazz, whom had fallen back to recharge to rest.<p>

"Lyric" Ratchet called seriously "I need to ask you a big favor." he carefully dropped the small human on the berth, near Jazz's pedes. "I need you to watch over her, and to take Jazz with the others" he motioned to the medics making a line with their patients to leave the medbay.

"Um... okay? Whats going on? Where are we going?" She asked, watching him detach the berth and clip the monitor and drip to it so that Jazz could be safely transported.

"An evacuation, for security's sake that is, we're not under attack yet." he explained.

"Where are we evacuating to?" she asked, walking around Jazz's berth to take control of it.  
>"You'll see soon enough. If you can, help around with the move, the more to help, the better." He said giving her a light encouraging push before heading off to help others.<p>

A little weary, Lyric made to follow the other medics, making sure Jazz's hands would not slip off the berth and hit a wall or something. She looked towards Gabriella, who was taking their surroundings as nervously as almost she was.

"Heck of a week huh?" She tried to start, gaining the attention of the other.

"I... I guess...is this normal?" Gabriella asked, looking concerned towards the mech in front of them.

"Not that I'm aware of, I've been here for a while, and its never been this hectic, definetly never had an evacuation." she said looking ahead as well, flicking her doorwings, it was almost a self conscious thing now, as if it helped her to be better aware of her surroundings, the data it fed her processor helped. "Kind of worrying actually, there's still three more like us, and I know for sure they are going to try their best to get those three to safety." she mused.

"What about us?"

"Hn, well as long as we're with these guys we should be safe enough, they mean us less harm than human kind does, that's for sure."

"Human kind?" Gabriella repeated, her voice rising a little "I AM a human!"

Lyric pursed her lip plates, frowning.

"Hate to say it, but you're not. Look, don't get angry at me, I know exactly what you're going through, believe me I did the same thing when I got here...the sooner you accept it the better."

"What if I don't WANT to accept it?"

"Then this is going to be a very VERY long ride." Lyric said exhaspered. "Look, Gabby, I don't mean this in a mean or cruel way, but you are NOT a human, however, that doesn't mean you have to give up the humanity you've had for so long. I haven't given up mine." she tried to explain. "Hell, I still wish I could just go to the movies, or a walk in the park...what I mean is, in the end, my body may have changed, so has my fate, but I'm still all me, whats in here" and she tapped at her chest plate lightly "is still 100% me. And its the same with you"

"What if I don't know who I am anymore?"

"You always know who you are" Lyric corrected "right now you know you are someone who has doubts about herself. But on a more productive note, you'll find your way, I'm sure you will."

"Have you?"

Lyric took a long moment to consider the question. "No, not yet, but I'm working on it, its not something I feel I should rush, I will know when I'm ready."

They arrived to the Ground Bridge bay, where the medics were taking their patients through one of those said ground bridges, which looked more like a portal.

Gabby grimaced at the sight, moving further into the berth.

"Not those again..."

"You've gone through one?" Lyric questioned curiously

"You haven't? How did you get here then?" Gabby countered.

"Uh... I was asleep...I didn't see how I got here... I guess they must have transported me through one at that time..." she mused, following after the others into the portal.

The tunnel of light made them squint their eyes and optics, Lyric making an effort to make sure Jazz's berth hovered right and wouldn't tumble over with the fluctuations of the tunnel.  
>She pushed it out through the other end, sighing in relief at her first experience, her tanks felt a little upset, but that was about it, Gabby looked like she was close to throwing up.<p>

"That was...something" she noted, looking around herself before hurrying to follow the medics like she was supposed to. They were in a cavern of some sort, there were barely any lights, and mostly she was following the medic's headlights, and turning on her own to see better.  
>Then, when turning around a corner, the two girls felt their breath escape them, as they were faced with a more illuminated cavern, a large structure half buried into one of the walls, it had once sported an orange color, but now it was scratched and used from age.<p>

"Oh my god..." Gabriella whispered, Lyric's optics brightened in turn, looking on in shock.

"Its their space ship..."


	20. plus 3

Lacey flipped the key in the door's keyhole and entered her apartment with a tired sigh dropping a shopping bag on the floor at the entrance and closing the door behind her before beginning to take off her jacket.  
>No greeting came from the rest of the house, no lights were on, but that was normal, Lacey lived alone, by herself and on her own pay.<br>She could have easily kept living on with her parents, but that was not a pleasant existence in the least, and Lacey enjoyed her independence, even if it were a lonely one.  
>She had a job at an animal shop, nothing big, just a regular job among thousands.<br>She flipped on the light switch and dropped her keys in a little can by the door then made her way to the kitchen with her groceries.  
>She was tired of the day's work, her muscles sore from running around the shop, cleaning cages, unpacking boxes, receiving clients. The job was a lot harder than it sounded, how many people out there had the guts to clean about ten cages of pet snakes? How many people knew just how to hold a bird to get it out of its cage?<br>Heck how many people could even tell the difference between a turtle hibernating and a dead turtle?  
>Not that many, that's how many.<br>Proceeding with her daily chores, Lacey got herself a can of apple beer and went to the living room, where she promptly fell on the couch, flicked the tv on just for the sake of having some sort of sound at home and proceeded to rest her tired body, her mind blank of anything for now.  
>After a few minutes she glanced towards her laptop, it was on; she always left it on, as well as the internet, especially these days.<br>One of her friends had gone offline for months, and there was no news, no nothing, she feared something might have happened to her friend, so she left it on, just in case, waiting for a sign.  
>Today was not that day it seemed, the window was still devoid of any messages, and her heart sank a little.<br>Lacey wasn't the most social of people, her online friends were sometimes all she had, and now they were going missing, it was depressing.  
>She didn't get to ponder too much on those thoughts before she heard her doorbell. Groaning in resignation, she rolled off the couch, and tiredly got up, it was probably the neighbors again, off to complain about something again…or to tell her that they had a flood that was about to come through her ceiling once more.<br>Setting in the security chain on the door, she peeked through the hole to see a man's face, not your ordinary fellow, he was large and muscled, full of tattoos, with short hair and a beard, and to top it off he wore a bandana atop his head like a biker would.  
>Behind him stood other figures, but she couldn't make them out very well with the limit the lens gave her.<br>Even more suspicious than before, she didn't even open a crack of the door.  
>"Who is it?" she asked out loud, reaching to her right to the umbrella bucket, where an old baseball bat was at, which really had never had any use for baseball in its history.<br>"Special delivery mam" a gruff voice came from the other side.  
>"I didn't order anything" she said, narrowing her eyes, raising her bat just in case.<br>"Not mah problem mam, Ah need yeh ta sign somethin' so we can deliver it an' go"  
>Carefully Lacey opened the door a crack, the chain still in place; she peeked outside to see the man, accompanied by three others, a blond and two red heads. The blond and one of the red heads were clearly twins, and the other one was rather short. They were holding a large crate.<br>She eased up a little when she saw no visible weapons; they all wore mail post tags, though none were wearing the uniforms.  
>"Awful late for a special delivery isn't it?" she commented, eyeing them suspiciously.<br>The large man shrugged.  
>"Awful busy day mam" he justified, waiting for her to step out, he was holding out the documents for her to sign.<br>Hesitantly Lacey closed the door again, taking off the chain, and carefully opened it again, only just enough.  
>"Where do I have to sign?"<br>The man stepped up, holding out the papers and a pen " Righ' here mam, an'ere once ya check if yer delivery's fine."  
>Lacey did so, looking if the papers were in order, it had no sender registered.<br>Once signed, the man motioned for the box, the twins moving in, one with a crow bar and the other holding the box while he tried to pry the top open.  
>It did with a loud pop, revealing a lot of fluffy strings inside, likely protecting its contents.<br>They stepped back, allowing lacey to investigate inside, she leaned in, reaching inside it and testing it for any solid shape.  
>She felt a shiver going up her spine then, and barely had time around before she was pushed into the box.<br>With a scream, the top of the box was closed above her, she struggled to get herself sitting up inside the box and to push the top, but it wouldn't budge.

Ironhide watched as the twins deactivated the hologram on the container, revealing its metallic surface. It had taken quite a bit to pull off that act, but he let out a small breath of relief at their success. They could hear muffled screams from inside it, and he felt regretful for it.  
>"You sure this was the best way to do this Hide? She doesn't sound TOO happy." Sideswipe asked, moving around the container with his brother and cliffjumper to lift it in unison. Ironhide locked the door to the house.<br>"Kid's jus' gonna have ta deal with it, no time fer courtesy. The cons will know what we're up ta any klik now."  
>They stopped in their steps, looking around in alert.<br>"Did you hear that?" Cliffjumper whispered, despite the girl's obvious screaming inside the box.  
>"Jet engines, to the south" Sunstreaker noted, looking in said direction "heading our way."<br>"Righ' more than enough reason ta get goin'" Ironhide said, rushing them.

Lacey was hyperventilating, kicking and screaming and pushing at the crate as best as she was able.  
>Nothing worked, she could faintly hear them talking outside, along with other strange noises, like engines running, not the typical car engines either. Then the roar of jet engines above, the men shouting, her box bouncing more carelessly.<br>All she could do was scream at the top of her lungs, kick and try to force the exit open.  
>None of it helped though, and suddenly, the noise just increased ten fold, the sounds of screams, of explosions and shooting.<br>Frightened she curled up at the bottom of her crate and cried, frightened beyond her wits.  
>Her box was then set somewhere on the floor, more shouting, she couldn't make out what they were saying over all the noise.<br>To her surprise, the box opened just a crack, letting in what little light there was outside.  
>"Hello?" a young girl's voice called. "Are you all right in there?" It was an Asian looking girl, pretty young from the looks of it, likely on her thirteen's "It's okay, they're outside."<br>She held out a hand for Lacey to take, who looked at it as if expecting it to bite her. Hesitantly she sat up, peeking outside of her box, they were…inside of something, it vaguely looked like the interior of a truck, or yet another container…the doors were locked.  
>"Where are we?" Lacey asked, surprised at how hoarse her voice sounded "are we going to be sold as slaves?" By all means the situation looked a lot like something of the sort.<br>"I don't know, a police man came by my house and demanded I come to the police station, but instead he brought me here" the girl was clearly as scared as she was.  
>An explosion sounded nearby, startling the two.<br>Loud sounds, like metal hitting something repeatedly, then all of a sudden the door opened, letting in more of the deafening noises, they barely had time to register a large metallic hand before it roughly deposited a third girl inside and closed the doors again.

"Holy crap!" the young girl said, rushing to the new one to check her over. "Are you okay?"

The girl she was inspecting was chubbier, tanned skin and brown grizzly hair, she was dirty from ash and earth, and looked like she'd seen better days.

She was panting, looking at the floor in a semi horrified, semi paralyzed state.

"T-they're r-r-robots" she stuttered, her voice sounding on the border of panic.  
>"What? What are you talking about? Are you all right?" The asian girl asked, making the other look at her in the eyes, inspecting for any injury.<p>

"They're robots..." the girl repeated, this time more clearly, making the other two exchange a glance.

"Robots?" Lacey asked, surely not... "I only saw humans..."

"Me too" the Asian girl agreed "perhaps she is confused from the shock" she suggested.

They did not however get to discuss the matter further, as a hollow whistle was all the warning they got, before an explosion happened all too close to their container, pushing it from where ever it was, and making it tumble violently to one of the sides, throwing the three girls around in a mess.  
>There were screams, there were crunching noises, and Lacey could have sworn she'd heard the crack of a bone at some point, though she was relieved it wasn't her own breaking.<p>

Before the trailer container could have stopped however, Lacey was crashing against the asian girl, and then to her horror, saw the container she had been brought in flying towards them, and that, was the last she saw.

* * *

><p>Lyric had been asleep, her head resting once more next to Jazz's side while he lay on his berth, not in recharge, but at rest.<p>

He was not that surprised to find himself in the ark's familiar orange medbay, or to find his creation still glued to him like a lost puppy.

There were so many things he wanted to do to that young face, to coddle her, to chase away her nightmares at night, to give her comfort and guidance when she needed it, to just be there for once.

It reminded him of that wonderful and fleeting moment in his life, when she had been born, where he'd tried to fool himself, made himself think she would stay with them forever, and not just one week.

He could still remember it perfectly, waking up after a hard birth, to find prowl at his side, he had held his hand until Jazz had crushed it, but that was the last thing on either of their minds at the time, at his request, Prowl had brought him a small creature, bundled up carefully in a thermal blanket, and had gently rested it in Jazz's weak arms.  
>He had looked down at the small being, who could barely open its optics at that stage in life, and watched her squirm a little and try to shift closer to his plating, recognizing her carrier.<p>

The soft venting that came from her in a quiet whisper, the slightly parted lip plates, the tiny servos curling up cutely near her face, used as pillows.

He still remembered how strongly she had gripped at his digit when he offered it, and had proceeded to examine it with her dentaless mouth.

Lyric was still very much that sparkling from long ago, more mature maybe, but she was still only a youngling, and so new to everything, so in need of affection and guidance, it made his spark dance the same way it had back then.

His moment didn't last forever though, as suddenly, the doors to the medbay were slammed open, letting in a crowd of hurried medics and soldiers, some carrying comrades, others being the injured ones.

So absorbed had he been in his creation, he hadn't noticed Ratchet and the remaining medics getting the medbay ready for this wave.

Prowl showed up among them, limping slightly but otherwise looking fine, he was likely just there to report and organize the troops, Prime himself was there for repairs however.  
>The worst part was when Ratchet shouted "Out of my way! NOW!" and rushed out of the group with a small form, bleeding in his hands, he went straight for the operation room, support medics following after him while others remained behind to help the rest of the bots.<p>

With all the noise, Lyric had eventually woken up as well, and looked around confusedly, trying to regain her bearings.  
>"Its okay sparkles, they jus' came back" Jazz reassured her, watching as Prowl finished what he was doing and moved off to join them. "Rough night?" Jazz teased, watching as Lyric quickly got up from her chair and offered it to the limping mech.<p>

"Thank you Lyric" he said gratefully, sinking in the chair with relief. His leg hurt, but the damage wasn't life threatening and could wait treatment while the medics were busy with the more serious cases. "The night has been...rather difficult I admit." He said tiredly, his doorwings sagging a little. "But in the end we were successful, well, mostly, depending on how Ratchet can help that last one." he explained "The Decepticons were closer to her, and reached her sooner, fortunately it had been Prime's team, but still, she suffered damage, a broken neck, hopefully Ratchet will be able to fix it, otherwise we are in a sudden dire need of a body for her."

"An' the other two?" Jazz asked, watching as his creation looked back at the group of mechs anxiously.

"Over there with Ironhide, both knocked out when a crate fell on them." Prowl explained, motioning for the large mech.

"An the cons...?"Jazz let the question drop.

"Have not yet revealed their alliance, though it is plain as day." Prowl said with a heavy vent. "For the moment at least, we are safe, and hidden. It should take them a long time to find us, but it is best that we leave as soon as possible."

"Woah, hang on" Lyric interrupted, her optics suddenly wide "leave?"

Prowl sighed, this was really not the best time for him to explain their situation to her...so Jazz motioned for her to approach him, and pat on his berth for her to sit.

When she eventually did so, he took her hands in his, and looked her in the optic.

"Sweetyspark...ya remember how Ah told ya the humans are betrayin' us? How they got all buddies with the humans?" she nodded, vaguely recollecting it from when he returned from his mission. "That's a real bad deal" he explained "The humans an' the cons will be huntin' us down together now. We're not wanted here anymore, its not safe. Its not even a matter of fightin' for whats right anymore, with the humans, we're severely out numbered, we need ta survive. Live ta fight another day, understand?" she nodded meekly. "Good. Now what that means is-"

"We're leaving Earth" she said, her voice a little shaky, her gaze shifting down to her hands. "that's why we're in this ship isn't it? We're leaving the planet..."

"Yes" Prowl said bluntly. "We've little choice in the matter Lyric, believe me if we could, we would stay. But we cannot, as soon as the Ark's engines are fixed once more, we will depart."

She nodded vaguely at that, not accepting it, it was too soon to accept it, but acknowledging what they were telling her.

"Earth is all I know...its my home, its always been my home..." she noted, feeling as if the last piece of her was finally being taken away from her.

"Sweetspark" Jazz called, making her look up from her hands, her optics were slightly teary, bright with the strength of her emotions. "Ah can't promise ya we will stay, cuz we can't. But ah can promise ya this: Yer not losin' yer home, home is where the spark is" he said, tapping at her chest plate "An' yours is righ' ere, with us."


	21. The Five Creations

It had taken Inferno to pick up his mate and hold him in the air with much difficulty, to keep Red Alert from breaking through the operation room doors.

He was just as panicked as he of course, but red alert's processors were currently so scrambled by panic and the desire to protect that he couldn't realize that he would only get in the way of the medics and prevent their creation from being treated.

Lyric watched with morbid fascination as Inferno made every effort to keep the panicked security chief from doing so, they had arrived a short while after Ratchet had taken one of the creations into surgery, and she could only guess that it was theirs.

She wondered as she watched them, if Prowl and Jazz would have had the same reactions...no probably not, though she was pretty sure they would have reactions all of their own.

Prowl bristled, watching as well with disapproval etched into his features.

"They are going to wake the others up if they proceed with this racket."

Jazz watched as well with pity, he knew all too well how Red Alert felt, how scary it was.

"Better go play damage control before it gets ugly Prowler." he suggested.

Prowl hummed thoughtfully, considering, before turning back to his creation, still sitting on Jazz's berth, her hands still in his grip, though her attention was fully on the scene.

"Lyric" he called for her attention, satisfied with how immediately he received it. "I realize this is terrible timing, and that what we have just told you is hardly making things any easier for you. But I have a significant favor I must ask of you."

Jazz's optic ridges arched in curiosity, listening in.

"I require your help with introducing the new creations." He explained in a collected manner, expecting his creation to blow up on him in anger. "No one appropriate is available to take care of them, as I am sure that Ironhide has already made his escapade. However, you are qualified with the type of knowledge needed to deal with them in this precise situation."

"What?" Lyric's tone was deathly, as if she could not take in his words very well. Was he really dumping her someone else's duty? Just like that? What was she? A back up baby sitter?!

"It is only temporary" Prowl tried to explain, his doorwings stilling even more than usual as he prepared himself "Until things calm down a little and their assigned guardians are able to step up and take them."

"Who the heck are their guardians? I'll be giving them a piece of my mind for this." Inwardly, Prowl felt relieved that she had accepted it, even if she had not outright said it.

"Ironhide is the eldest's Sire, and Ratchet and Wheeljack are as you can see, busy, they are the creators of the youngest" He said motioning for the operation room.

"I am still going to give them a piece of my mind" she seethed, armor puffing angrily.

"I appreciate it, it will not be for long." he promised "If you manage to calm them down by the time I return, I promise you that I will find a way for you to spend some time outside before we are to leave earth."

Her visor brightened a little bit at that, and he knew he had gained her dedication as well now. Really all she needed was some incentive.

"To top it off, ya get ta talk to some other girls fer once, girls like yerself" Jazz input, jabbing her softly with one of his clawed digits . "An' who knows, ya might be surprised" he said with a wide grin.

"I have the feeling there's more to what you just said than you're letting on " she said, giving him a narrowed lighted look.

Jazz's grin only grew wider, if that was possible, giving him a terribly accurate impression of a chessire cat. "Ah'm special ops, ah'm meant ta know things ah dun' let on."

"Hmn..." she eyed him thoughtfully, before looking away towards where the Autobots had left the two creations, far away from Jazz's berth. She then turned back to Prowl with a glare "And you better have that leg treated by the time this is done" she growled before getting up from her seat and stomping off, leaving the two to watch her.

"Ya sure that was the right move?"Jazz asked, glancing at his mate for a second, doubt etched in his features.

"The probability is low, but I am hoping that finding some friends will at least ease her loss a little." Prowl said calmly.

"An' the outing ya jus' promised her?"

"The surrounding area of the Ark should be safe enough, so long as we keep a low profile. Perhaps even the city if she learns to use her alt form and holoform."

"Ah'm assumin' that means we're gonna stay hidden in'ere fer a while... whats our status?"

Prowl let out a small sound, frustration, the kind he made when he didn't like the best odds that they had.

"We are low on supplies and energy, we will require to use a space bridge if we are to hope in reaching a populated sector to re-stock. To top it off we do not have the required materials to fix the Ark's engines, which implies we will have to steal some from this world."

"They had it comin'..." Jazz pointed out "They're gonna get themselves way worse with Megs aroun'"

"That is assuming he will not follow us once we launch out of orbit." Prowl countered. "I highly doubt he would stay in this organic planet while Prime lives. In the end his ultimate goal is Cybertron."

Jazz hummed in thought for a while, tapping his claw to his chin, an old habit.

"Ah'm assumin' yer gonna need mah division ta get said supplies."

"Of course. Discretion is a priority, your division is the most appropriate for such a mission after all.

We will be ground bridging to various different places to avoid suspicion."

"Ya can count on mah mechs fer that"

* * *

><p>Lyric stormed away from her creators, feeling slightly angry at what she had to do, but not for very long, the news that she would lose earth was still at the back of her mind, gnawing at any form of anger she had and replacing it with a hollowness she couldn't explain.<p>

There were so many things she had wanted to do here, to see, to experience.

Now, with the form she had, that wasn't possible, but at least Prowl gave her this one chance to go outside for the last time, where ever they were, it was something at least.

As neared the berth the two human girls had been deposited in, she saw them shift, starting to sit up. Yes Red Alert's shouting had managed to wake them all right.

Then Lyric's spark stopped abruptly, optics glued to one of the girls as she looked around, let out a squeak and backed away, pulling the smaller girl with her.

Lyric stopped, staring back at the girls, taking in the eldest's appearance, her spark feeling like it was suddenly overflowing with a confusing set of emotions, happiness, confusion, worry, relief.

"Lacey" She whispered, feeling the energon starting to slide down her cheeks.

"STAY AWAY! WHAT EVER YOU ARE DON'T COME NEAR!" the girl all but screamed at her, hissing.

Lyric flinched at the other's tone, before raising her hands in a peaceful gesture.

"No! No, its all right Lacey, I'm not going to harm you."

"LIKE HECK YOU'RE NOT!STAY AWAY!"

"Lacey" Lyric tried again, staying as calm as she could manage, voice soothing. She noted how the youngest was trembling in the other's arms, utterly in shock." Its ok. I'm not going to approach you see?" She motioned for the spot she was at "But I need you to listen, and to pay really good attention to me all right?"

The two girls stared at her, one with suspicion and the other with horror.

"Ok. Here we go: I know this sounds crazy, especially coming from me, but I am not who you think I am." she motioned for her own body." this is... relatively new." she looked at Lacey straight in the eyes. "Its me Lacey, its Jessica. I know, I know, its absurd, how can I be Jessica right? Well if you calm down a little, I will gladly explain it to you, but I need you to stop screaming. I promise you on my soul I will do everything in my power to keep you two safe, from everything and everyone here."

Lacey snarled, glaring at Lyric in a way the other was not used to seeing in her friend.

"You could just be making that up, hacked into my computer or something."

"I hardly know how to hack Lacey...but fine, lets see, I'll tell you things only Jessica would know..." she mused for a few seconds. "Ah, I know, you used to really want to have your own chickens, and you got a few chicks once, you made me name one of them, which I called Flapper. What else? Hmm...well I know you like to draw sprites of magical creatures like griffons and dragons, because you're addicted to birds and feathers. I also know you easily get depressed and it usually takes a lot from me to moralize you back to your good self." Lacey was staring at her with eyes wide as saucers, so Lyric continued with the things she knew from a long time of online chatting and typing with each other.

"Is that enough?" she asked after a while, tilting her head a little, smiling down at her friend.

"W-wha...how?" Lacey asked, disturbed.

"Its a long story...but it IS me Lacey." she sighed, nearing their berth and sitting at the edge. "Its funny actually... we always wanted to meet each other, and I always wanted to hug you...but now..." she looked at her own hands with disgust "I can't...or I might squish you...you're so tiny" she giggled a little, trying not to sound as sad as she felt.

"W-what happened to you?" Lacey asked, concern now etching in her voice.

"Same thing that's happening to you I'm guessing." she sighed "we're not human Lace...I know its farfetched" she quickly added when she saw the two girl's reactions. "But its what happened to me. These guys" she motioned for the rest of the room "are an alien specie called the Cybertronians. They're kind of...sentient robots I guess. Its complicated, but they're in this deep war right now..."

Lyric continued to tell her story, stopping every once in a while to make sure they were following, telling as much as she could, and again, leaving the Decepticon kidnapping incident out for now. She was not ready to talk about that, not yet.

"So...We're Cybertronians...inside fake bodies? How the heck does that even WORK?" Lacey asked, feeling a headache coming.

"It makes no sense, the science for it should be impossible" The other girl spoke up for the first time.

"Well look around" Lyric said motioning for the mechs again "they should be impossible, but we're surrounded by them."

"So, you have PARENTS here?" Lacey cut in, watching her friend carefully.

"Yeah...something like that I guess...its still awkward. They're already more like my parents than what my old ones were...the ones I thought were my parents before I mean" she said drawing little circles with her digit on the berth.

"That is...strange, what are they like?"

"Weird" Was Lyric's first thought "not your usual type of folk. They're very protective of me though,and caring I guess." she shrugged, she tried not to think too much about it because of all the confusing emotions. "One of them is over there" she said motioning with her head towards Jazz, Prowl having left long ago. The Head of Special Ops grinned at them, giving them a wave. "He can probably hear everything we're saying, he's got really good hearing. Just as a heads up" she warned, watching as Lacey and the other girl numbly waved back.

"So...that's your dad?"

"Uhhh...they're both kind of...male..ish." Lyric said, trying to think of a way to say it "well, from what they told me, that's incorrect-"

"your parents are gay?" The younger girl interrupted "How did they have you then!? It makes no sense!"

"I was getting to that..." Lyric said, noting the girl's absolute need to explain everything scientifically. "from what I was told, they don't exactly have a gender, they are asexual." she paused, letting it sink in "What we call a girl, or a femme as they call it, is one who has a spark -a soul- able to reproduce more than the others, although technically they all seem to be able to do it, it just takes a great deal of effort."

"So you're..."

"Yeah, its troublesome." Lyric said with a scowl, crossing her arms. "And you guys are too, in time you'll have to get your own bodies like I have."

"What if we don't want to?" Lacey inquired.

"You'll have to. They aren't going to keep replacing all that's needed for those bodies, and besides its very dangerous to stay like that, you can't really defend yourselves."

"What about the parents? Do we have any too?" The young girl asked.

"I'm sorry I didn't quite catch your name "Lyric asked, looking down at her.

"Oh...um...its Lee...just Lee please."

Lyric stared at her hard for a long moment, making the girl squirm.

"Lee...huh..." she glanced at Lacey after that, a curious look twinkling her optics.

"Tell me Lee, did you happen to have an account online? Like an art site or something?"

"Huh? Yeah, yeah I did, why?"

"What was your username?"

"Um... Dj...why?"

"Holy..." Lacey was now staring at the young girl too.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Lacey asked.

Realization seemed to dawn on Lyric, and she looked back towards Jazz sharply, who was still grinning at her.

"You sleazy little weasel..."

"What? Whats wrong with my account?" Dj asked confused.

"This is kind of scary... but um... Dj... We've spoken before." She tried to lay it down for the youngest gently.

"What? No we don't I don't know any Jessica."

"That's because you don't know her as Jessica..." Lacey said, taking in their discovery with slow shock. "Holy heck... was this set up for us?"

"I think it was..." Lyric said thoughtfully "We already had Gabriella here...and there's still another creation in the operation room...it all adds up..." Lyric mused out loud.

"Whose Gabriella?" Lee asked confused even further.

"Who is she indeed..." Lyric agreed "I'm guessing she is either user named Windy or Shioji."

"Woah...that's creepy" Lacey agreed.

"Yeah..."

"Wait I know those two! They're friends of mine." Lee said, starting to catch on.

"We all are DJ. I am LB, Lacey is Kage." Lyric finally revealed to the young one, watching as the realization dawned in those young eyes.

"They had to set it up... there's no way the only five hidden creations would have met online by accident."

"Why would they do that? If their purpose was to hide us though?" DJ asked, looking at the other two with new sight.

"Hmn... I don't know, but I know how to find out." she said turning to them, extending her hands out. They looked at them wearily "Trust me..."

Hesitantly, Lacey moved in first, sitting down on the palm, then she was quickly followed by DJ.

Lyric carefully lifted them up, making sure they wouldn't fall off, she looked around in search for Gabriella, and was glad to spot her sitting on a berth side table, datapad still in her hands.

Slowly she walked over to her.

"Is that...?"

"Gabriella yes, she's not taking to things very well, so try not to provoke her. I'm fairly certain now that she's Windy" from what she knew of the girl anyway, they had only met recently, but had become quick friends, and she knew the girl enough to be aware that she would not deal with things well on her own.

She stepped up to the table, satisfied that the other recognized her presence.

"Gabriella, I need to bring you with us, its important."

"Whats this about? I was told to wait here" the young girl asked suspicious, watching the other two girls with a mixture of hope and weariness.

Lacey waved at her, giving her a bright smile.

"Hai Windy"

The girl balked, freezing in her seat.

"Nice Lace...real smooth" Lyric said dryly. "I'll explain everything Windy, just get on my hand." she said, referring to her friend in a more familiar manner, it felt good to call her by that name instead of her human name.

Looking thoroughly awkward, the girl got to her feet, and carefully moved to Join DJ in her hand.

Lyric made sure all of them were safe, keeping her hands against her torso protectively to give them some support while she walked.

"H-how do you know?" Windy asked, still shocked as Lyric made her way to Jazz.

"Well I'm Kage, this is DJ, and that's LB" Lacey said cheerfully, motioning for the other two when mentioning their user names.

"What...?"

"Its a weird story, I didn't know" Lyric said, her gaze sharpening on Jazz as they approached "I am hoping my creator can explain things..."

"Ah'd be more than glad ta" Jazz answered her as they were now near enough to hear him. Lyric huffed, setting down the three girls on the berthside table, and staying on her feet, with her arms crossed and glaring at Jazz.

"Explain then."

Jazz's grin didn't falter, he was expecting this, he was ready for it.

"Well, where ta start? As ya jus' foun' out Ah'm sure, yalls know each other online, an' had the time ta become friends over some time." He said, not faltering at the dirty looks they sent him. "This was a planned event that took some time ta work, seein' as not all of ya got into the same things at the same times. A lil' bit o' hackin', a lil' bit o' influencin' and we managed ta get ya girls ta meet an' become friends or acquaintances."

"Why?" Lyric asked frostily, her form rigid.

"Cause, if we were ever ta have ta leave ya behind, an' anythin' happened that made ya realize what ya were, which ya would have eventually, ya would at least have each others" Jazz said with a simple shrug "t'was a safety measure, ta ensure ya always had someone like ya aroun'."

"That makes some sense...if you all died, there would be no one for us to go to" DJ said with a nod.

Lyrics features softened a little.

"So is the other girl Shioji?"

"Yep" Jazz said cheerfully, glad that she didn't seem as angry as before.

"That's messed up..." Windy spoke, scratching the side of her head.

"Very messed up" Lyric agreed with a huff, finally sitting down on the edge of the berth, close enough but not too close, she didn't want Jazz grabbing at her again and embarrassing her.

"The worlds messed up" Jazz said cheekily.

"So you're Jessica's..." Lacey tempted, trying to take in what kind of character Jazz was.

"Carrier, yes, name's Jazz." He said, extending a clawed finger for them to shake, which they did albeit wearily.

"Whats a carrier?" DJ asked curiously.

"A carrier? Well, its the one that carries their creation's spark until its developed enough ta get its own body" Jazz said.

"So...its the woman?" Lacey conclude, snorting at the face Jazz made.

"No man, that's totally not it."

"He does act very womanly" Lyric said with a snicker, completely ignoring Jazz's pout. "mother hen tendencies, carrying..."

"That does NOT make meh a woman" Jazz said, slightly offended.

"Whatever you say ...mommy" Lyric teased, jumping back off the berth to avoid being whacked on the head.

"No respect these days" Jazz said with a huff, unable to follow her or reach her.

"What comes around goes around" was all Lyric told him, staying clear of his reach.

* * *

><p>Thanks for reading you guys! Now, I have a lot of paths I can continue with, but I'm gonna let you guys influence the story a little bit, so tell me what you want to see, what you want to know, who do you want to see (autobots or ocs whichever you like).<p> 


	22. Lost in Paradise

For this chapter I am going to suggest a song to listen to while you read, its by evanescence, and its called "Lost in Paradise"

You can youtube it easily.

* * *

><p>It really shouldn't have surprised her. After a few hours of talking, and mainly catching up with her friends, even a few more for Jazz to recharge for a while, Prowl finally returned his leg had been treated, though he still had a slight limp.<p>

They received a few warnings from Ratchet about mechs's health, and were given a...well it was a wheelchair...only it didn't have any wheels, instead it hovered.  
>Jazz gave it a scornful look more than a few times before being helped onto it, after which it was Lyric's responsibility to drive his chair after Prowl.<br>She didn't pay Prowl much mind though, trying to take in and memorize the halls around them, this was fairly different from the base they had been in so far, the halls were bigger, and held a feeling of architecture to them that was definitely not human, but still, in its own way, attractive. Though she was fairly certain it was not an artistic ship, it was mostly functional.

But here and there she could occasionally find a detail or another that gave away the need to look pleasant, and every once in a while she spotted a graffiti or two.

Jazz kept trying to keep conversation, but she wasn't really listening.

Her mind was instead on her friends, so far everything had gone fine between them, they were agitated of course, and she knew at least one or another was on the verge of a breakdown. One she selfishly wanted to avoid, but to be honest, she was more afraid of them prying into her story than anything else, as the example, she had no doubt that they would, but she wasn't ready to talk about it, not yet.

It was still too fresh a wound, held back in the corners of her mind, where she couldn't see it, where it wouldn't bother her.

It would have been so much better if she could just pretend it never happened.

Before she knew it, they stood before a door, which Prowl typed in the access codes for, and letting them in he turned on the lights.

It wasn't all that different from the one on the previous base, save for the more cybertroniany (or so she thought) stuff than the earth stuff.

Prowl seemed to notice this for he commented:

"Our possessions from our previous lodgings will be returned soon enough, they are for now being examined for any possible hidden trackers or microphones."

"I see." She said simply with a nod, leading Jazz's chair further in the room and allowing the door to close.  
>These quarters had more space, and more doors to them, she could count three doors, and the main room was slightly divided by a few cabinets between the living area and what she could guess was kind of their kitchen? It didn't look much like one, but the type of placement of things suggested it.<p>

"Like before, you are free to use the living space and the washrack." Prowl continued motioning for one of the doors. "Jazz's and mine's room is in here" Prowl motioned for the door closest to him."And this time around, I am glad to tell you, that you will be given your own room." he said, motioning for the last door, pleased at the manner her doorwings perked up. "It was being remodeled while you were recovering at our previous base, I am afraid it is still not finished however, so you will have to forgive us on that."

"I get my own room?" She asked, just because she needed to hear it again as a confirmation.

"Of course" he said, as if it were the more logical thing in the world. "This room has always been yours. We had it installed when Jazz was carrying you."

"T'was kind of a hobby ta get it ready for ya" Jazz input with a faint smile, not his usual broad one.

"So...that's like... a baby room?" she asked curiously, moving away from Jazz's chair to edge towards the door.

"A sparkling room" Prowl corrected "and, not quite anymore, we at least have gotten you a proper berth for you to recharge in, we couldn't have you recharge in a crib now could we?" He teased lightly, resting his hands on her shoulders, giving her some encouragement to go inside. She looked back at him hesitantly, silently asking permission, to which he nodded, giving her a light push.

They watched her expectantly, as she reached for the control to open the door, and then jumped a little when it hissed open.

The room wasn't what she expected. In her naivety, she had expected it to be brightly colored, like the humans did for their children, either blue or pink.

But instead, her room was almost pitch black, however it had tiny little dots and lines all across it, lighting it up as if the entire room was the center of the galaxy.

It made for a very soothing, if a bit eery atmosphere.

"Its traditional from our culture ta have a room with the galaxy in it fer sparklin's, supposed ta represent how they're the center of the universe fer us" Jazz explained as Prowl pushed him up behind her.

"I see... that...makes a bit of sense I guess...still a little... odd how you chose to decorate it."

"If it is not to your pleasing, it can be changed" Prowl said easily, noting her slight discomfort.

"No, no, its not bad, I mean, its just not what I expected that's all. I guess I'm still too attached to the human concept of things."

"Understandable." Prowl said in the same tone.

"Just... give me some time to get used to it I guess? I've got a lot on my mind right now, and a lot to sort out in it as well."

"We'll leave you to rest then, if you require us for anything, we shall be in our room, you are welcome to come for our aid at all times."

Her visor dimned, her gaze shifting to the floor "Right...thank you" she said as they made to leave "Good night."

"Good night Lyric."

"Cya tomorrow sparkles!" and with that the door shut closed, leaving her in the odd and quiet room.

Lyric took a moment, staring at the door, before shifting uncomfortably and looking around.  
>There were a few datapads on a shelf, and some odd objects displayed on them as well, she didn't dare touching them without knowing what they were.<br>There was also a box, a very streamlined one, with a light on the cover, she didn't open that either.

The floor had a soft rug made out of something she couldn't quite tell what it was, but it was soft, and it made her steps a lot quieter.

The same kind of material covered the berth, which, although was for just one person, was relatively wide and comfortable.

With a reluctant sigh, she approached the berth, and carefully lay down under the soft material, shutting down everything she could to try and go to sleep.

* * *

><p>At first, there was nothing, just darkness, no materiality, no nothing. Then a voice spoke, it was muffled, she couldn't tell the words apart very well.<p>

Then her vision flickered on, and she was startled with a strange faceplate. It was that of a mech, his denta were long and sharp like a shark's, his optics piercingly red and sadistic, his fingers like sharp needles.

She panicked, and made to move away, but was startled to find her legs and wrists tied to where she lay, the room was dark, but a bright light shone upon her, another mech, just as frightening, if not more for his large size, came into view, holding out a laser scalpel in his hands, it was stained with energon.

Feeling her eyes widening behind her her visor, she looked down, and saw her old human body, a gaping hole in her chest, bleeding out whatever was left of her, the insides sparking from the ripped circuitry.

Feeling like she was running short of breath, she looked up at the two mechs, one of them held something, a strange glass container, holding inside an energy orb of some kind...

"Your spark is ours now" The mech said darkly.

She wanted to shout otherwise, to reach of her spark, for her soul, it was painful, to see it, having its container caressed by energon dirty fingers.

Lyric sat up with a start, inhaling as much air as she possibly could, venting it through her overheated and stressed body.  
>It was still dark, unnaturally so, but she recognized the unknown constellations of the universe around her.<p>

That didn't make things any easier however. Getting a grip of her reality with some delay, she pulled her legs up, hugging her knees in an attempt to comfort herself.

She let out a shaky breath, vaguely reaching to touch at her chest, needing to know that there was no hole there.

Still the fear lingered like a leech, and it even surprised her when she felt trickles of energon come from her optics.

She quickly cleaned it away, berating herself for such childishness: it was only a nightmare, just that right?

It wasn't an actual memory...right? What if it was a memory?

Her breaths became harder to cycle, she was panicking and she knew it, her optics darting to every corner of the room that she could visibly see, anywhere where the tiniest thing could possibly hide in.

Not able to take it any longer, she threw the covers off of herself and rushed out of the room and into the living room, it was darkened as well, the lights were off, there were no sounds coming from Jazz's and Prowl's room, which probably meant they were in recharge.

For a fleeting moment she considered going in there and seek comfort, but no, as soon as that thought came, it was gone. She couldn't bother them with this. She didn't trust them with it either. It was too personal, too frighting to even word out.

So quietly, making sure there were no more streaks of energon on her face, she made her way out. A quick walk would sort this out, it always did before, whens he would have the worst arguments with her old parents, she would run off into the streets, and walk around for hours, not thinking, just walking, letting herself calm down.

It wouldn't be the same to do so in the Ark's halls, but it was the best she was going to get now. Besides, according to them this ship was perfectly hidden, not even the humans knew where it was.

It wasn't like there was going to be another attack for a long while at least.

This was proven when she met a few mechs along the halls, and they passed a simple greeting, carrying on with their business. No one had told her to go back, no one had asked questions. It was fine.

She kept on walking for a while, having no idea where she was after a while, but that was ok, it was part of this walk, it didn't matter where she went, it didn't matter if she didn't know her way back.  
>Then something unexpected happened... she met a blocked hall, there were bars blocking the path, like the police would do to a crime scene, nothing she couldn't pass over.<p>

Only this was not a crime scene, this was because the hall had been torn open by the cave, likely when the ship had collided in here.  
>Her spark skipped a few beats, realization coming to her. This was a way out...out of everything, all her troubles, out of everything.<p>

She didn't need to consider it, she didn't need to think about it.

She crawled over the barricade, and slipped out the exit, into the dark cave.  
>There were some lights in the distance, likely from the entrance to the ship.<br>There was also a lot of noise, the noise of rain.

She followed the sound eagerly, nothing a crack or another starting to show, letting in streams of water and a pale moonlight.

Finally she saw a crack big enough to fit her, and she began climbing her way to it, each grip on the slippery rocks felt like an open breathe, she could feel life returning just by reaching it. She needed o step out.

The rain started to fall on her metal, the noise loud, but she couldn't care more when she managed to pull herself out of that darkness and was met with the night, which for once looked as bright as day, despite all the gray clouds, despite the large jungle trees shadowing everything. It couldn't have been brighter.

Stumbling a little, she made her way down the mountain, idly noting that the ark's engine's could faintly be seen poking from the side of the mountain, now covered in trees and jungle fauna.

With her processor incapable of considering things over, she rushed into the forest, rushing, running through, tripping on the occasional stone or branch, weaving between the large trees.

Finally she stopped running when her path ended in the edge of a cliff, the sight before taking away all the weight from her soul.

It was the kind of sight she only ever got to see on a television program, infinite jungle, green everywhere, a giant waterfall landing far far down below.

Slowly she walked to the edge, leaned down and sat there, her legs dangling in the air, tempting fate.

The rain was the only sound, her only company.

* * *

><p>Prowl awoke slowly into the morning, feeling a tangle of limbs wrapped around his body and a warm presence he knew so well clinging to him.<br>He onlined his optics, taking in the sight of his mate, fully relaxed in his arms after a long night.

Even injured as he was, Jazz was a...very active mech a night. And they had been in a rather good mood, returning to the ark, returning to their old home here. It might not have been Cybertron, but it had been their home for so long, and through such hard times, it felt good to be back here, now more than ever since Lyric was with them to share it.

Gently he nuzzled Jazz's faceplate with his own, attempting to wake him up.

He was successful, as the other mech's optics came online to meet his, on instinct he reached over and gave Prowl's lips a light peck, before reaching back to the small table by the bed to reach for his visor.

"Mornin' Prowler."

"Good morning, how are you feeling?" Prowl asked, his hand lightly tracing the recent patch on Jazz's wound, sending his other a slight shiver.

"As good as Ah ever feel after a night like tha'." Jazz said, clicking his visor back into place before returning to snuggle against Prowl's side. "Ah might even try a few steps today."

Prowl frowned at that, his arms wrapping possessively around the smaller mech, petting his back lovingly.

"Remember what Ratchet said: you are not to push yourself." He reminded, making Jazz chuckle, receiving a feeling of thanks and appreciation.

After a few moments of just enjoying each other's presence, Prowl finally pulled away, sitting up.  
>"I will go get us some energon, and check if Lyric is up yet."<p>

"Ah'll be waitin'" Jazz responded with a purr, amused at the roll of the optics that Prowl gave him as he stepped out.

Prowl fixed up a warm cube of energon first, making sure it was just the right temperature, before he went to Lyric's door, knocking at it.

"Lyric? Its Prowl, I have your morning ration if you wish?" He received no answer, perhaps she was still asleep? If so he would have left her be, but with what had been going on lately, he felt the need to always check that she was present, so he silently ordered the door to open, and peeked into the room, it was empty of the child, the berth's blanket was on the floor, nothing in the room seemed out of order except for the absence of his youngling.

"Lyric?" He called in doubt, just in case this was a sick prank, just in case she was hiding.

But he didn't receive a response.

Hurriedly he came out of the room and back to his own, setting the cube next to Jazz "I have to go, Lyric is not I her room." he said briskly.

"What? Did the cons-"

"I do not believe so, nothing is out of order. She must have left on her own for some reason."

"Ah'll go with ya"

"No, you are not yet capable of walking around, and moving you around in that hover chair will take too long. You will remain here in case she returns." he said grabbing his equipment from the table on his side of the berth. "I can still faintly feel her spark, not near, but she is definitely still around. I will follow it and bring her back, you have my word"

"Better keep me updated!" Jazz said, with slight irritation as Prowl hurried out the door, leaving him there to wait.


	23. Because I am your Sire

Lyric still sat in that lonely edge of the cliff when Prowl found her.

It had rained for most of the night, and only now in the morning was it finally stopping, the sun shinning through as if nothing had ever happened.

Her frame reminded her otherwise though, she was cold and shivering, she was still wet, and it honestly felt unpleasant in some places in her armor.

Prowl made a small noise with his vocalizer to attract her attention, her sagging doorwings twitched once, but otherwise she didn't make any indication of acknowledging him.

With a sigh, he approached her, taking note of how dangerously close she was to the edge of a very deadly fall.

"Lyric" he called softly. "why did you run away?"

The answer didn't come for a long time, long enough to test even his patience, right now he really wanted to pull her away from that edge, but the wrong move could end badly very easily.

"I didn't run away"

He shifted his weight, crossing his arms over his front, trying to take in her deflated posture.

"Disappearing in the middle of the night without telling anyone, on your own accord, is considered running away."

"Its also just considered going for a walk." she said with a shrug. "Look, lets cut the crap, what do you want Prowl? For me to go back? Might as well put me in a bird cage while you're at it. I look better in one" she said bitterly.

"What is this about Lyric?" He asked patiently, trying his best to let the comment pass.

She sighed, looking back down below, the height didn't frighten her, no, there were much scarier things in life.

"You really don't know?" she asked, surprised at how numb she felt about the whole matter. Really what difference did it make if they knew?

"I have a set of possibilities as to your actions, I would like to reduce them to the true cause however, so that we may help you."

She snorted, picking at a plant that had grown at the edge long ago.

"How nice of you. You throw me away, then you kidnap me, then you give me a home, then you give me friends... am I supposed to feel thankful about this? Because I'm not." she turned to glare at him.

"It just makes it worse! What if THEY find out? What if they already know? What if THAT happens to them too?!"

"Calm down" he said gesturing with his hands slowly "It is all right, nothing will happen to them, nor to you. We would die fighting before that were to happen-"

"What if you DO die?!" she nearly screamed at him, tears jerking from under her visor. "Jazz nearly did! You got shot! The first time I saw you two for what you were at the zoo you were so badly damaged it took you weeks to be fixed! What if next time you DO die?!"

"Then other autobots would stand in for us, they would take care of-"

"I DON'T WANT THEM!" he was taken aback by the level and emotion in her voice. "I'm sick of it! I'm sick pf everything always changing! I don't even KNOW how much its changed! I don't even remember things I probably should of!" she said raising to her full height, stomping her pede on the ground to make her point.

Prowl wearily watched her, his doorwings sensing the floor's fragility beneath her.

"Lyric please be calm, we will sort this out, please just step away from the edge." he said motioning for her to come forwards.

"Sort it OUT?! How can you possibly sort it out?! You weren't there! You weren't watching when the Decepticons had me! You weren't the one drugged so much that they couldn't remember what was going on! You're not the one seeing their faces at night! Wondering what they did to you!"

The floor beneath her cracked, Prowl didn't even let her finish her rant before diving in, grabbing her around the waist and then throwing themselves backwards as far as he could manage, before the floor gave in.  
>They landed roughly on the floor, with him taking most of the damage, his sensitive doorwings screaming alarms at him for the rough treatment.<p>

He held his creation close; that had been far too dangerous, far too close to losing her again. This was becoming a bad habit.

She shivered in his arms, her body half curled up.

He didn't let go, not so soon, he did however try to access the damage, taking note the small signs of rust forming from spending the night under the rain, as well as how cold she felt. He frowned, moving to sit up with her.

"Come, we should return to the ark, you need proper rest, after that we can talk." he promised.

She shook her head, but allowed him to help her to her feet, making sure that she could.

The walk back was silent, save for Lyric's attempts to quiet down small sobs, and hiding away tears.

It hurt to see his creation in such pain, and his processor tried to beat down every possibility he could come up with to make it better. None of it was any good.

Carefully he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, feeling a slight flinch from her momentarily, since she didn't pull away however he let it be.

She felt so tiny next to him, her posture sagging in misery, her visor dim and desaturated of its normal orange color.

When they arrived back to their quarters, Prowl was as quiet as possible, she really didn't need an over protective Jazz all over her yet, so instead he directed her towards the private wash rack "Come, we need to get all that grime off your armor before you rust." He explained when she instinctively wrapped herself in her own arms and her armor tightened closer to herself.

"I don't feel comfortable with this..." she said meekly as he gently pushed her in and closed the door behind him.

"It is fine, you just require a superficial wash, you won't have to take your armor off." He explained, easily predicting her line of thought. "It will be quicker if I help you" He motioned for her to get under the water hose.

Hesitantly she did as asked, turning on the water to wash away the dirt and rain water, a dark puddle of brown quickly formed under her feet, some leaves falling along into the mix.

After a few minutes Prowl told her it was enough and to step out, she did so without complaint, the known grace of a femme completely absent from her figure.

He pulled one of the small stools, and patted it as an indication for her to sit, before he pulled a larger one for himself.

Silently, he sat behind her and began the process of covering her with solvent, using a soft sponge on her back first, mindful of every doorwing sensor he knew would set her off.

"So, are you going to tell me what this is really all about?" He asked cautiously.

"I told you what it was about"

"You've told me many reasons for it, you did not tell me what made you snap like that." he pointed out, waiting politely as she took a long pause, he took note of how she hugged herself, her knees glued together, her doorwings shivered slightly.

"I don't want to talk about it..."

"And yet I believe you need to." he said calmly, changing tactics and cleaning instead areas he knew would relax her more. "Perhaps not with me, perhaps with Jazz? Or maybe one of your friends. My point is Lyric: you are digging too much emotional conflict within yourself, and if you do not take care of it soon, it will take over you, it will drive you with fears, and affect your actions, push you away from others. If it gets to such a point I might be forced to hand you over to your uncle smokescreen for some therapy sessions." her whole frame tensed impossibly at the mention of such sessions, he couldn't see her expression, but the body language was enough.

"I don't NEED a therapist..." she said bitterly, her doorwings giving a proud flick.

"Then speak. You know that you can tell us anything, that we will never be mad at you for being who you are." He pushed soothingly.

"Stop it." the order came so short, and so firm, that Prowl didn't even notice that he did, that even his hand had stopped its motions to clean her frame. "Why do you have to be so annoyingly frustrating?" she growled. Prowl did not respond, he was unsure if she wanted him to, and he wanted her to speak. "You just thought I ran off-with reason- and spent the entire night outside of this ship! The least you could do is be angry at me! Yell at me!" she said still not looking up from the tiles on the floor her gaze had been boring into since they started.

"...you wish for me to punish you for your behavior?" He worded carefully, he needed to make sure he understood what she meant.

"I wish for you to act NORMAL around me! You two smother me all the time! There's nothing I can do that's wrong in your eyes! You act as if I'll break apart at any little thing!"

"Because you SHOULD!" she froze, Prowl recomposed himself quickly, he never rose his voice, he rarely ever needed it, even with the twins he was usually composed. Lyric was now looking back at him over her shoulder, her face was streaked again with tears, her lips slightly apart and her visor bright.

"I apologize if you think we are protecting you too much, but so much has happened to you as of late, we wanted to make the pressure on you be as minimal as possible." he explained a little more calmly now. "At first we wanted you to recover your health, and get used to things, then we were to approach talking to you about what has happened, clearly that has been a mistake." she flinched at the words, as if the subject still stung. "I realize that that is not the type of parenting that you are used to, but I will not be the abusive parent that you had." he said tapping the bottom of her chin up with his hand, to make her look back up at him in the optics. "You can talk to me, about anything, whenever you need it, you can come to me just for comfort if you do not wish to speak. But I want you to solve this, I do not wish you to keep on suffering in quiet."

He shifted his hand from her chin, petting the side of her helm, his thumb rubbing at the base of her chevron, hoping to send some comfort.

Her body shook, the armor rattling noisily as she tried to get it under control, her lips pursed with the effort, twitching whenever her control slipped a little. Her hands kept opening and closing into fists, lifting just a little to indicate she wanted them to move, but couldn't bring herself to do it.

"As much as I would like, I cannot amend the past, nor our mistakes, I was not able to protect you when you needed me most, I was not able to give you the love that you needed" her vocalizer hitched a little as she suppressed a sob. "Perhaps that is why we are not so harsh on you, we feel that whatever is happening to you now, is in great part our fault, for our failure. Many times I wonder if it would have been better to have raised you ourselves, if it would have avoided all of this pain. What it would have been like to have a little femme running around our quarters all the time, tampering with Jazz's stereo, or stealing away my reports to gain my attention." a faint sad smile formed in his lips as he watched her try to contain everything right in front of him "I realize it will never be like that, it is too late for it. But I do wish to make the most out of what we do have, I just need you to give me that chance. Do you understand?"

The femme nodded jerkily, small sounds escaping her despite her best efforts. Prowl took that as his cue and leaned down to embrace her, surprised when she clung to him needfully, even hurting a little.

"I c-cant..." she sobbed, her head buried in his shoulder. "I c-can't say i-it."

That was what he feared. He pet her back between the doorwings and behind the helm, trying to calm her down a little.

"I understand, is there anyone you feel you could talk to about this?" There was a moment of hesitance, the femme's breaths evening out.

"I... I don't know..."she admitted "I never...there was never...anyone to talk to." she admitted "not like that..."

"Everyone needs someone they can talk to freely" He said, his embrace tightening just a little.

"I know... I just...I never trusted anyone like that...I never knew anyone like that..."

"What of your friends? The ones that have just arrived?" He suggested, trying not to sound too hopeful about it.

Again there was a long pause as Lyric hesitated.

"I couldn't... they have so much going on right now...its not right to dump my problems on them..."

"You care for them." he noted with some pride "You put their well being before yours, even though you really need the help at the moment." Selfless, his daughter had a great gift in that, one that would certainly reward her greatly some day he was sure.

"Its always been that way." she muttered, her sobs nearly gone. "They need more help than I do right now..."

"I disagree, I believe you all need each others help just as badly as each other. You should accept that, and support yourselves. They are the closest thing to who you are right now, and they were your friends before you met us. You can still trust them." she pulled away to look up at him again, trying to find something there that just wasn't present.

No deceit, no malevolent intent, only care and something else that she was not willing to accept seeing yet.

"Why...?" her voice was wavering, her optics behind the visor pleading an answer. "Why do you do this?"

He smiled faintly, petting her atop the helm. "Because I am your Sire... your father. I created you willingly with all my will and love, because I wanted you, and because I wanted to love you. In conclusion, you are my daughter, and I your father." He let out a soft purr of his engines, to show how much he meant it, even if she couldn't quite understand the magnitude of what that meant coming from him. "And I do not mind how long it will take, but some day, I will prove to you that much."

The femme let out a keen, shutting off her optics and visor and leaning into his touch, a small show of acceptance.

More cries tried to escape her, her fans kicking on due to her effort to keep it all in, and then something surprised him, a small crackle of energy. Not just any kind of energy either, not the kind you could see, but the kind you could feel, her EM field.

At first it was fuzzy, then he started to make out her emotional output, he could teek her field. There was confusion, sadness, fear, hurt, doubt, and the smallest hint of hope.

He opened his usually closed off field, testing the boundaries, making sure she felt his own emotions, love, comfort, warmth, hope, regret...He wouldn't hide even the bad emotions, no, this family had had too many secrets as it was, it was time they were honest with her, if they ever wished her to trust them.

Her breath hitched as she noticed the field, her visor snapping up at him, bright and fearful.

"Whats happening?"

"Be calm" he said, trying to give her as much of that as he could. "Your EM field just came online, it is normal."

"My what?"

"Your EM field, it is sort of like a net of sensations displayed in an electronic form. I do not know the science too well, but it allows you to show others your emotions, unlike a bond however it does not share them. You should be able to read my own right now. This is how most Cybertronians used to see through before the war. Sensors and sensor nets, you are able to close it off to some extent so that you do not make it obvious to everyone. If you do so, it would require another to be very close to you or even touching you to feel your field."

"I don't know how to do that..." she said, pursing her lip plates tightly.

"We can teach you, but not now." he said patting her head "come, we need to rinse you off and dry you."

It was only then that she seemed to notice she had gotten him wet and with solvent as well, and she had to nod, embarrassed, murmuring an apology.

"It is all right" He said, helping her to her feet, noting alarmingly how unbalanced she was. "Perhaps this conversation should have waited..." he noted out loud, helping a very flustered femme back under the water and helping her stand and rinse the solvent off.

When they were almost done he felt her lean on him, her field plainly projecting fatigue.

"Why am I getting so tired...?" she wondered out loud with a frown.

"You are still recovering, despite the great improvement you've done so far" he reminded her "you have however been in a controlled environment, and spending the night outside broke that control, your body was not yet ready for it."

"heh... I didn't know robots could get sick..."

"Cybertronians sweetspark" he corrected, helping her out of the stall and to the dryer. "and yes, we can become ill, although it usually takes a lot for that to happen to us naturally. Your spark temperature must have cooled off a lot during the night, and your body is trying to regulate itself back to normal now, wasting a lot of your energy." he tried to explain, turning on the dryer and noting with some satisfaction how she relaxed to the warm air.

Once that was done it had actually become a problem to support her, the femme was practically in recharge, her armor puffed up and warm.

"I'll help you to your room, you can recharge then" he said, praying that she could at least stay awake that long.

Her field was suddenly flaring with a spike of fear, and instinctively she clung to his armor, burying her head into his armor.

"I don't want to recharge..."

"Lyric... you are exhausted, you need to recharge." He pointed out, wondering if this really was about recharging or her room. "Would you rather recharge in our room? Jazz can stay there with you" he suggested, and was pleased to find a note of appeal towards the idea in her field, and then there was a mixture of shyness worming its way in.

"I don't want to bother him... it'd be weird" she said, looking away.

"Don't worry about that, I'm sure he would love to have you over." He changed directions before she could argue and opened the door to his quarters, not surprised to find Jazz on the berth, watching the vid screen.

He looked up from whatever he was watching and flashed them a smile.

"Bout time you two got back" he said cheerfully, even if Prowl could feel the question over their bond.

"We've had a little talk, and had to wash her a little." Prowl said easily, guiding his creation to the berth. "Her EM field came online" He announced, trying to keep the conversation light. "I had to explain a bit on how it worked, but now she is tired and requires rest."

If Jazz wondered why rest meant on their berth, he did not show it, he wasn't about to complain a few hours with his creation.

Lyric crawled into the berth, and stayed a respectful distance from Jazz, only to have the saboteur sneak an arm around her shoulders and pull her close, field warm with welcoming. She noted with some fascination how absolutely different Jazz's field felt from Prowl's.

"Dun worry 'bout a thing Prowler, Ah got it covered with the little miss." He said, watching his mate move to their closet and pulling out a thermal blanket, bringing it over and covering his creation with it, she WAS a little cold...

"I trust that you will... I will just get her a cube and then head to work. I am late enough as it is." He said hurrying out, failing to teek how guilty Lyric felt at his words.

"Dun worry Lyric, he's more than happy ta be late fer work if it means yer all righ'." Jazz told her, his arm around her shoulders tightening a little.

She nodded faintly at that, and waited until Prowl came back and handed her her cube, petting her forehead as she took it and started to drink.

"I want you to think on what we discussed, and I want an answer when I return, understood? Until then, rest over the matter."

Again she gave a faint nod, optics focused on her cube.

" I will see you two later then. Have a pleasant day."

"You too Prowler" Jazz said getting comfortable.

When he was gone, an unsettled silence fell between them, and Jazz could easily teek her apprehension and awkwardness.

"Why don't ya go ta recharge sparkles? Ah'll keep watchin' on mute" he told her "or would ya rather Ah turn it off entirely?"

"You don't have to... I don't really want to recharge" she said, shifting a little in her position.

"Is that so...?" he said knowingly. "Well, want ta watch this series with meh then?"

"Sure..."

He un paused the screen and continued to watch his series, with some satisfaction he noted over time her head nodding off a bit, her posture slackening, until she fell entirely to recharge without knowing so.

Petting her form idly, he continued with the series, leaving it on low volume.


	24. help has arrived

To say the workload in the ark had been murderous that day, was an absolute understatement. Being late, and not having Jazz to back him up on the workload, left Prowl practically running around the Ark, inspecting every team, every group, getting updated on every department and receiving reports from every which way, he practically had to write the reports while he ran around!

But at long last, as the day was coming to an end, he was headed to his last destination of the day: The medbay.

He would have gone there sooner, but there really was no point for receiving reports that early on when he had just received them the day before. So he had given the day for the medics to work on their patients and was now returning for the results.

His creation's words that morning had been plaguing his mind all day, distracting him from his ever growing workload.

It worried him, sure to a war mech like himself, and like almost everyone on this ship, being captured once was really not an experience no one had been spared of, there were worst things. But he had to keep reminding himself that Lyric was not like that, she was by all means, a civilian, and a young one at that, sheltered from the war, and if she was to now join their war, then he needed to fix what had been done so far, and prepare for the future.

It was difficult, Prowl wasn't used to dealing with civilians anymore. It had been so many centuries ago when all of them were either dead or had joined the army, or even fled the planet. He hadn't seen an actual civilian since the exodus.

Most of them had died, he had watched far too many of those, his own home city had been enough of a downfall to make him numb to all the death.

Since then, he had merely focused on the living, the dead were behind them, and they had to focus on the ones alive, and day after day, century after century Prowl had worked hard, had planned and prepared as best as he could to save all the lives possible, to avoid another Praxus.

At first he had focused on his family, Smokescreen and Bluestreak, then Jazz came into the picture, slowly pulling him out of that numb space he had fallen into to be more utilitarian than alive.

It had been many centuries like that, fighting the war, sometimes forgetting why they did it, sometimes realizing again why they did do all the horrible deeds of war.

The Exodus had been by far one of the worst events they had had to deal with.

Leaving their dying planet, helping whoever was alive to escape the planet and Megatron, and then being the very last ones to leave, followed closely by the Nemisis.

Thinking back on it now, he realized he at least understood Lyric a little bit, leaving their planet, the only home they had ever known, watching it disappear, erased from their lives, knowing they would never come back.

He remembered the horrible sense of loss he'd felt when they launched, the last time he saw his planet still engraved with the best quality possible in his memory banks.

After that, there were many years in space, the emptiness had slowly started getting to them, there was nothing but their lives to fight for now, they didn't even know where every bot else had gone to, they never heard from them. As far as they knew, they were the last.

And then there was Earth. His second home, the place where his hopes, his will to live had been born anew, and he was leaving it behind as well.

He had to wonder how many times they were going to have to go through it until they were finally at peace.

It was as he stepped through the medbay doors that his thoughts came back to the present, glancing around the large room, searching for Ratchet.

He spotted him through the window to his office, and headed straight there, knocking out of politeness before stepping in.

"Unless you're dead or dying, get out!" The medic growled, not glancing up from the datapad he was furiously writing on.

"I have come for your report, Ratchet" Prowl said calmly, arching an optic ridge at the medic's outburst, he must have had a very busy day.

Finally the medic looked up from what he was writing, his optics dim and worn out, the scowl on his face made for a very gruesome and frighting visage.

Prowl inwardly shuddered, maybe he had been working the entire night too.

"I'm almost done" he harrumphed, returning his attention to what he was writing.

Nodding in understanding, Prowl waited, making an effort not to point out that the medic should have had the report done that morning, and the only reason why Prowl was asking for it now was of his own choosing. Though he was very certain that Ratchet would just tell him to frag off if he told him that.

When Ratchet finalized his report with one harsher tap of his stylus on his signature, Prowl looked back at him from the point he had been blankly observing.

"There, nothing too new today I'm afraid, we're doing good progress on the kid though."

"I assume she will make a full recovery?" Prowl asked, accepting the offered report and adding it to the pile he was carrying under his arm.

"Oh yes, she will, it was a little complicated to get her out of the body at first, but the rest should be fairly simple. Unlike lyric I don't have to change her from a new body into one of ours. She should recovery a lot faster, unless she happens to develop some sort of weird modification like Lyric did for her voice box." Ratchet explained. "Wheeljack told me he's making good progress on it, give it a day or two and I think he'll have it ready."

"Yes..." Prowl said thoughtfully, frowning slightly "He has mentioned the potential problem of lacking resources very soon, for the three others."

"I'm already recycling what I can out of the body Lyric was put in by the Decepticons, but we're still going to be using a lot of exoskeleton materials. We're going to have to steal from this planet if we want to have enough resources to leave."

"It would seem so, that will not please Prime however." Prowl agreed, watching as Ratchet snorted, twisting his nose crudely.

"Prime can shove that guilt up his exhaust pipe, we have no choice. Its either steal a few materials, or let them kill us. Now I don't know about you Prowl, but I haven't been saving the lives of everyone on this ship for centuries to just hand everyone over to the humans for experiments."

"I understand your point all too clearly Ratchet, I will work on convincing Prime to take some measures."

"You do that." Ratchet said with a huff, crossing his arms and leaning back on his chair. "By the way, if you see Ironhide, tell him he either comes here on his own to pick up his youngling, or I'm going to get him myself and drag him to my medbay." he growled.

"Ironhide has not yet returned?" Prowl questioned surprised. Sure Ironhide had some issues with meeting his creation, Prowl could understand that, but even he didn't think the old soldier would be this reluctant to deal with the problem.

"No. And I honestly don't know what else to tell the kid, she's growing suspicious, and she has as much distaste of medics and medbays as 'Hide does. This isn't somewhere she needs to be at right now."

"I see..." Prowl responded thoughtfully. "I will see to it that she receives temporary guardianship until Ironhide feels ready to speak to her."

Ratchet eyed him strangely, before nodding. "Well you go off then, and don't stay late working, you've got a daughter and an injured mate to return to now."

"As do you if I recall" Prowl pointed out, heading for the door "you might reconsider leaving her with Wheeljack all day when you see the both of them today in the laboratories."

All he heard from the medic was some incoherent sputtering and cursing, before Ratchet rushed off past him and out of the medbay, yelling at First Aid that he was in charge.

Prowl closed the door behind him, using an officer code to lock it before looking around for the creation.

It didn't take him long to spot a medic attempt to...do something, either talk or inspect her he wasn't quite sure, because right now he was mostly just holding his servos up, trying to look harmless while the girl hissed at him and backed up against the corner of the berth she sat on.

Walking towards them at a more brisk pace, Prowl tried to look as normal as he usually did.

"Is there a problem here medic?"

"Sir!" the young medic said, jumping a little startled. "Ah...no, no everything is fine, I'm in charge of looking after this one, but she is less than pleased with that.. I've been trying to talk to her for hours."

"I see" Prowl said, glancing at the clearly suspicious creation, unimpressed, then back to the medic "you may go, she will be given temporary guardianship until her creator comes to pick her up."

"Sir!" the medic said with a salute, all too glad to leave.

Prowl watched him leave, before turning back to the creation, meeting her glaring eyes, reading how closed off her body language was.

"You have little to fear, I will not harm you." He said with his typical stoic attitude "I am Lyric's creator, her Sire to be exact, I believe you and my creation are...friends?" he tempted, satisfied at the small gleam of recognition in the girl's eyes.

"Jessica" the girl said, recognizing who he was speaking of.

"Yes...Jessica." Prowl said, swallowing his distaste for the human name, he liked to call his creation by the name they had given her.

"What do you want?" she asked defensively, eyes darting to every corner, her attention fully on keeping herself safe.

" I am here because your own creator is not yet ready to meet you, Ratchet mentioned your distaste of the medbay and the mechs that work here, and suggested you were taken elsewhere, as such, I am assigning a new guardian to you until your creator is ready."

"Alright..." she said slowly, Prowl could visibly see her struggling to understand everything "who...is my guardian then?"

"You will be staying with myself and my family unit for the time being, I am certain that you will be much more comfortable around Lyric than anywhere else at the moment." the young human gave a vague nod at that, agreeing with the comment.

"Then if you please..." he held out his free hand for her to climb onto.

Lacey observed his hand with a frown, squirming a little in her seat before getting up reluctantly, it was plainly clear that she really did not want to take a ride on his hand, but the thought of the medbay and its medics must have been more unpleasant than that, for she finally sat on his palm, making sure she was secure and wouldn't slip off the edges or between his digits.

Prowl stepped out with the young one, not once giving her any strange looks, and just focusing on his path, he kept quiet for most of the way, allowing her to glance sideways to the halls and to the mechs they passed by.

When they were getting closer to the officer's quarters however, Prowl slowed down.

"Before we arrive, I have a favor to ask of you" the accusing look she shot at him was as predictable as he thought. " Be at ease, it is nothing too demanding of you. I wish to ask you to speak to Lyric." he explained, pausing to make sure he had her attention. At the small nod she gave him, he took it as a "go on" and continued.

"She has not been fully open with us, and we understand why that is, and do not wish to force her to speak of it to us, but I believe, a friend might be exactly what she requires now, someone she trusts to speak to."

"Hmm...no promises." she said, looking away from the Praxian mech "she's not always honest with me, I can try, but sometimes people just dun' want to talk."

"Understood, although I do hope that you are more successful than we have been, I understand that we are not always what she will need, and that we will not be able to provide everything she needs to be happy. But I will still attempt my best."

And for a moment, Lacey could almost feel the determination in his neutral voice.

Prowl then stopped in front of a door, quickly typing in a code for it and stepping inside the living room.

He let her have a quick look around, before heading to his quarters, where no doubt Jazz was probably still watching the vid screen, bored to death by now if he wasn't torturing their creation.

He was not disappointed when the door parted to the side, allowing him entrance to his berthroom.  
>Jazz looked so utterly bored even his visor was dim and flickering between offline and online. Lyric lay next to him, completely in recharge, head supported on his lap and under one of his palms, wrapped around the thermal blanket with only her torso and up outside.<p>

Jazz turned to his mate when he heard them come in, taking a moment to recompose himself for he had been that close to falling into recharge.

"Ei Prowler, whatcha got there?" He asked drowsily, stiffing a yawn and stretching his shoulder joints.

Prowl rose his hand with Lacey a little bit, presenting her.

"Ironhide has yet to take his charge with him, the medbay was making her uneasy, so I proposed she stay with us until Ironhide is able to come for her. I was hoping this would also lift Lyric's spirits a bit." He admitted, walking over to the berth and unceremoniously setting the girl down on it before moving off to dump his reports on the small desk in the room.

"Ah see." Jazz said, looking over the girl thoughtfully, a grin spreading across his faceplates. "Ol' Ironhide still scared of ya girly?"

"Scared of meh?" the Lacey asked, a bit taken aback.

Jazz's grin grew wider "'course girly, why d'ya think he's runnin' an' hiddin'?"

"Uhm...why would he? I'm the one tha' should be scared, I'm the one tha' was shoved in a frickin' box!"she said, slightly outraged now, especially when Jazz snickered.

"Not the first time tha' happened." The saboteur said cheekily.

"Wha-but-how many times has that happened?!" the girl asked exhaspered.

"Ohhhh 'bout jus' the one time with Lyric 'ere. She didn' like it either."

"It was not amusing Jazz" Prowl said in a scolding tone, not looking up from the pile of datapads he was organizing.

"T'was a LIL' itty bity amusin'...tho not at the time." he admitted, then looked at Lacey "Who shoved ya in the box anyway?"

Lacey was silent for a moment, as if caught off guard.

"I...have no idea...there were four men there..."

"The report spoke that their _strategy_" and he emphasized the word with some distaste "was to move you outside of the house peacefully, and then 'dump' you in a container so as to not be seen until taken to safety." Prowl informed. "A terribly messy strategy if you ask me, my retrieval of Ratchet's and Wheeljack's creation was much cleaner."

"Not everybot can wear the cop suit as nicely as ya can love" Jazz teased "So the report say who done it?"

"Presumably the twins and Cliffjumper were in charge of blocking the view around the container while Ironhide proceeded to push her in." Prowl said as if it were a mere statistic.

Lacey's eye lid started to twitch, as she looked between the two of them disbelievingly.

"My own father DUMPED me in a box?"

"To be fair Ironhide has never been the best with wording his good intentions" Prowl said distractedly, still organizing his datapads.

"Good intentions...right" she said, gritting her teeth.

"He's a good mech." Jazz input "a bit rough aroun' the edges maybe, not very good at expressin'imself. But mech's got a spark o'gold. He meant well."

"If he's so good then why is he avoiding me?" she huffed, crossing her arms.

"Prolly cuz he's nervous about facin' ya. Ya were separated years ago, its always been a touchy subject with 'Hide. He'll explain it to ya when he's ready, its not our place ta tell ya."

"Okay... what about my...mother?It is a she right?"

The two mechs exchanged looks with one another, looking as if they were considering saying something.

"Again that is something for Ironhide to tell you, not us. We apologize, it must be frustrating, but it is not right for us to be the ones to tell you." Prowl said, finally finished with what he was doing.

"What CAN you tell me?" She asked frustrated.

Again that trade of looks, Prowl approaching the berth and sitting down on the opposite side of Jazz, reaching out to pet his creation's wing lightly.

"We can tell ya that he loves ya, a lot in fact" Jazz said uncertainly "which is probably why he's so afraid of ya, he doesn't wanna mess up like he knows he can. He doesn't want ya ta hate 'im."

"How will he even know that he'll mess up or not if he wont even try?" she asked confused.

"Hide's not good at many things other than shootin' cons an' keepin' guns nice an' clean." Jazz explained "he's afraid he's already messed up big time fer leavin' ya with the humans, especially once we saw what kinda family ya ended up with."

Before she could ask anything else, Lyric started to shift, letting out a small strange noise, like the croon of a bird.

"Ah there we go, was wonderin' when she was finally gonna notice the noise" Jazz said amused, petting his creation's chevron tenderly, waiting for her optics to turn on.

She stirred, her optics slowly gaining light, she looked up towards the hand, then Jazz's face, squinting her optic covers in an attempt to focus on him, then turning towards the petting on her wing and seeing Prowl.

She let out a groan, turning away back to Jazz's lap and burying her face into the blanket, she did not want to deal with the promise now...

Lacey got to her feet curiously looking at her giant friend, taking everything in.

"Jessica?" She called out uncertainly.

Lyric's doorwings jerked up, then fluttered, then she stirred again, pushing herself up on her elbows to look down at where lacey was at her feet.

"Lacey...?"


	25. Weird

"...Lacey?" Lyric blinked, looking down at her tiny friend, confused and bewildered as to why she was there...on her parents berth...where she slept...

Her face went flush with embarrassment with realization.

"W-what are you doing here?!" she squeaked, subconsciously gripping at her blanket tighter, covering her front as if that would help to hide her.

"Uhhh..." Lacey seemed at a loss of words for a moment.

"Lacey will be staying with us for a while, until Ironhide is able to take care of her" Prowl spoke up, adjusting Lyric's shoulder armor and getting his hand slapped for it.

"Why? Why hasn't he gone to fetch her?" she asked, acting as if what she'd just done was completely normal and nothing to be shocked about.

"Its a long story girly, an' ah'm sure yer buddy's heard more than enough 'bout it by now " Jazz input, snickering at Prowl's frown.

"Where is she staying?" inwardly she prayed for them not to say 'here' as in, their room, along with her, that would have been awkward, it was awkward already with just her.

"We will make some arrangements in your room" Prowl told them "if not, then the living room should suffice."

"Are you all right with that Lacey?" Lyric asked, crawling away from her creators and to Lacey, feeling oddly like a person in a tale when they just met a tiny fairy.

Lacey looked down to the floor that was the berth, shuffling her feet a little, looking a bit timid.

"I don't want to be a bother'r'anythin'..." she mumbled.

Lyric frowned, huffing.

"What have I told you about that attitude?"

"Not...to apologize...so much?" she said slowly, as if fearing answering wrong.

"To be more confident and not so self blaming" Lyric said, poking her on the shoulder with a finger, nearly throwing her off balance.

Lacey ducked her head further in shame, to which Lyric let out an angry hum.

When that didn't seem to do anything, she sighed, reaching down to pick up her friend with care, wrapping her in the blanket with herself, then turning around to her creators "we'll be in my room if you need us" she said quickly, then turned away just as fast, eager to get out of there before they could say no.

She hurried out the door, and quickly ordered it to close again on the other side, and only then did she relax in the dark living room.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry they brought you into this... you don't have to stay here if you don't want to." she said, sounding tired.

"'Rather be here with you than that creepy infested room of doom" Lacey said, glaring at nothing in particular, hugging herself "with all the sharpy objects and the creepy doctor people."

Lyric chuckled, relaxing and walking towards her room "regardless, I'm glad you're here... things shouldn't be so weird around here anymore with you around."

"No problem!...How weird?"

"Well...for starters my parents are totally gay for each other...that's something weird to live with."

"True...and they had you as a baby."

"yeah that doesn't really help... I keep trying to imagine Jazz with a pregnant belly..." she shuddered "thankfully they told me that's not how it works for them."

"What else ya got?"

"Well...they work for an army as well, I mean... its weird to have them talk about battle tactics and stuff like that, it feels very surreal sometimes." she explained. "And the tvs? Its all recorded stuff they have, its not actually being sent through an antenna or anything."

"Okay, that's not TOO bad... I mean yea its kinda weird, but not too weird."

"They also know a lot of shit about my entire life...its freaky...and sometimes I catch them being affectionate to each other, like cuddling and teasing...I swear I once woke up while they were making out, they stopped before I could be fully awake to realize it, but I'm pretty sure they were."

"Eeewww...were you on their bed that time too?"

Lyric's face heated up so bad it went almost red.

"W-w-well yeah...b-b-but on the other base our quarters was just one room... and they weren't on the berth, they were on the couch." she said quickly, absolutely horrified at the implications.

"You poor traumatized thing you...yes that counts as...so weird."

"I know right?!" Lyric nearly squeaked. "I mean, its awkward when they do it! I don't even wanna know if they ever got away with anything ELSE." she shuddered again, opening the door to her room.

"that so warrants some...oooh!" the young human's attention was diverted by the room's odd décor, looking around with big shiny eyes. "its so shinnnyyyy"

"Uhhh..yeah...shiny...its a representation of the universe...some galaxy I don't know...likely their own...our own...argh! Its confusing." she said setting her down on the berth and closing the door.

Lacey looked around at their surroundings with curiosity, more at ease now that she didn't have strangers around.

Lyric returned to the berth and let herself fall on it with a huff, Lacey being thrown up in the air with the impact a little then falling back onto it.

"So...are you still able to draw?" Lacey asked, turning around to look at her friend, who rested her head on the pillow.

Lyric shook her head a little.

"No...my sketchbook became too small once I...changed." she explained. "I wish I could...but I can't even grab a pencil..." she said with some sadness.

"Ah... well... have you met anyone nice around here? To hang out with?"

"I guess..." Lyric replied with a shrug, stretching out across the berth. "there's only mechs around here...but they're okay...ish.

One of the youngest, is oddly my uncle... but he's pretty neat, loves to talk and telll me stories."

"Cool" Lacey said, indicating for her to continue.

"There's also Bumblebee, he's okay, very happy, very positive kind of person, pretty small too, he hasn't out right said it, but I think he works for Jazz..."

"What do they do? Jazz and ...Bumblebee? What kind of name is that anyway?"

"I'm not completely sure, they weren't very specific, I know Jazz is head of special ops, which makes him Bumblebee's boss. Prowl said he does infiltration and sabotage, but I got the feeling he does more than that. I'm not sure what Bee does though."

"Sweet..."

"Dangerous" Lyric pointed out "he's...very strange, he looks like a very nice and happy person most of the time, I almost believe it...almost. But then when its needed, he can change completely into something else...its frightened me a little.." she admitted, rolling onto her side to look at her friend.

"Well...they...are in a war, I mean... sometimes you need to, y'know...stop bein' yourself...kinda like Vietnam, they had no choice to be killers even though they weren't."

"I know... I know that...but..."

"Sometimes everybody has to do stuff they don't like" Lacey said with a shrug.

"I know...whats scary is what they DO for me... I mean... they've killed to protect me Lacey...I don't even know how many, I know of at least three by Jazz... heck even I..." she cut herself off looking away.

"Parents will do anything to protect their children...right?"

"Heh... doesn't really sound like the life we led until now does it?"

Lacey grew a bitter smile. "Yeah... it doesn't... at least we're in it together right? So it won't be too crazy."

Lyric smiled, reaching over to lightly tap her friend's knee with the tip of her finger.

"Yeah...that'll be nice." Lacey could feel the finger tremble slightly, the gears inside making a very faint clattering noise. "And Lacey...?" she said, calling her friend back to attention. "while we're here, I'll look out for you, nothing's going to harm any of you. I promise."

Lacey tilted her head to the side, observing her friend, trying to figure her out. "Whaddya mean?"

Lyric's hands wrapped around Lacey's body, and dragged her closer to the large femme, resting her against the armor covering the base of her neck.

"Like you said...this is a war...bad things happen, I won't let those bad things happen to you guys...I'll do everything I can to stop it."

Hesitantly, Lacey took a moment, taking in all the signs.  
>"What happens to us? What about you?"<p>

"I'll be fine. You know I will, I'm used to this kind of job."

"You mean taking the fall for others?" The girl said sarcastically.

Lyric looked away, not wanting to face what her friend was about to say, they'd gone over this a few times before.

"No. You listen to me now" Lacey said, grabbing at her chin plate and trying to pull her to look at her. It was a harder task than it sounded. "If we're gonna survive this, and if we're gonna stick together, then we have ta start trusting each other." she said, struggling with her words, it was hard for her to put it together in a way she could clearly express herself "so don't go starting to hide things from us or acting like a hero. That's not how it works."

"I'm not acting like a hero...I'm just...look, I'm the one with more experience here... hell I'm the eldest one! It falls on me to be responsible for you guys, I'm the one that's gonna have to guide you guys when you start getting your bodies too! I'm the one that's going to have to tell you what to do when the Decepticons manage to invade again! I'm the one that's-"

"Waiiiittt wait wait wait wait!" Lacey interrupted "So you've met with them before?"

Lyric froze, her optics darting away guiltily.

"Well I...sort of...I mean there was that first time when they came to get me..."

Lacey narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms " What happened?"

"Well... that first time Jazz and Prowl managed to protect me long enough until the autobots came, they nearly got themselves killed though...and I nearly got myself abducted." Lyric said uneasily.

"Mmmmhmm?" Lyric could feel the pressure from her friend, even if she hadn't said much, it was implied.

"After that I was taken to their base on earth, I've no idea where, I never got to go outside of it. I was in there for months. But anyway, during the first weeks Jazz and Prowl recovered and stuff, and then there was an attack on the base..."

"Aaaannndd?" Lace prodded.

"And...I was left in the quarters while they defended base...a mech managed to infiltrate through though...he came to our quarters..." her voice quieted down. "I tried to hide...but he still found me. He ...H-he grabbed me, threw me to the floor, and the next thing I knew, he was coming down at me with this electric spear or something, and he pierced me...straight through the heart."

Silence fell for a few agonizing minutes, Lacey watching her friend, the shaking had increased a bit.

"But...you're here now...right? You're alive..."

"It HURT. It hurt so bad...and whats worse? Whats worse is that I woke up in a Decepticon base, unable to scream because everything hurt so much, with no sight. I barely remember anything, I don't KNOW what they DID to me while I was out! I just remember panicking, and making a run for it, I tried to scream, it hurt so bad." she touched her own throat as if the memory was still fresh "it hurt everyone else too...I just remember running towards a warm presence, blindly trying to escape. That presence was Jazz in the end... I managed to get back to safety, the Autobots had come for me, and took me back. But it was too late...my old body was too damaged to put me back, and I had been put into a Decepticon frame... Ratchet had to operate on me to put me in a new body, I've been recovering since... I'm still...recovering..."

"Well... you're here now...and they're not here, right...?"

"Yeah..." she agreed with a trembling voice. "its just... I think the worse part is not knowing what happened while I was out... I keep having nightmares about it...imagining it... or I think I'm imagining it, I'm not sure if I'm actually remembering things..."

"Its probably just the stress...you did say you were still recovering"

Lyric nodded at this.

" I never told them about it...my creators I mean, I never told them about the nightmares. I... I just can't... I'm scared what they'll think of me if those nightmares are memories..."

"I don't think those will be memories...probably just your mind playing tricks on you. Because you're so scared."

"I know...but...there's always that doubt you know? This IS a war...they're not going to be nice and clean about it...Heck I don't even know how IT works!"

"It...?"

"You know!" Lyric said flustered, flailing her arms. "IT! Robo...sex..."

Lacey couldn't help herself, and burst into laughter.

"I'm sorry! I'm s-sorry!" she said between laughs. "that's just..." she had to take a moment to recover her breath "Sorry...sorry..."

"Lacey! I'm trying to talk about something serious here!" Lyric whined, her face heating up again in embarrassment.

"I know, I know, sorry" her friend repeated "That was just...ah...well how DO they do it?"

"Uh... I... don't know...that's the whole point...can they even do it? They must have some way to do it if they can reproduce..." she mused.

"So...they have some form of-"

"Please don't say it, I'll start imagining my creators doing it the human way" Lyric interrupted.

"Fair enough." Lacey conceded "well why don't we ask them?"

"W-w-WHAT?!" Lyric squeaked, stiffening "No! Nononononononono! God! That's embarrassing! That would be horrible! I could never ask them something like that!"

"Girrrllsss!" Jazz's voice came so suddenly the two jumped in their place, clinging to each other and staring at the door like deers caught in the headlights. Jazz's voice was coming from the other side.

"Time ta eat somethin'! Come out soon" they heard.

They stared at the door for a few minutes before Lyric regained her voice "W-we're coming!" she called out, before looking at Lacey "Not a word about this!" she said, before wrapping herself in the blanket again, Lacey sitting in her arms.  
>She set in the code for the door and it opened, they could hear music in the living room.<p>

Lyric stepped out hesitantly, and looked around, turning towards the kitchen just in time to see Jazz casually passing by Prowl on his hover chair, and squeezing the other's aft. Prowl jumped with a start, then came down with some sort of cooking utensil slapping his mate on the hand.

"No samples until after dinner and everyone is asleep" Prowl told him in a low voice, using sub harmonics he did not usually employ while working.

"Oh god... I think I'm gonna puke..." Lyric muttered, frozen in the spot, they hadn't noticed them yet.

"I second that motion...how do you live?" Lacey muttered back while Lyric slowly inched back into the berthroom.

"Feigning ignorance has been working so far."

"Wow...that...was weird...no, that was awkward." Lacey commented, still too taken by surprise.

"Just you wait until you meet YOUR creators, Ironhide isn't as easy to hide as those two..." Lyric said with a scoff "you better pray he's not as obvious about these things...geez...my old parents never acted like this around me... I never once even saw them kiss...these two? They do it all the time around the quarters."

"Eeewww...thanks... I didn't need that." Lacey said with a small smile.

Lyric tried to listen in at the door, trying to hear if it was safe to go outside. "Well... I guess we should make it known that we're coming out this time around..."

With that, she took in a deep breath, and stepped out again.


	26. Families

The next morning Jazz and Prowl had awoken first, Prowl leaving early for work and Jazz staying behind to do whatever he wished, and oddly enough he felt so bored he had actually started cleaning around.

Usually this task was Prowl's, since the mech had an undying need for order, but with how busy they had been, and how long the ark's quarters had been left empty, everything was still dusty and in need of being taken care of.

So Jazz busied himself doing that, happy with how lively the room got whenever he finished cleaning certain areas.

He was in the process of cleaning an empty shelf where Prowl's old enforcer equipment would be put when they got it back when he heard a large THUMP!

Blinking, he turned to where the sound had come from Lyric's bedroom. Curiously, and a little worried she might have fallen off the berth, or worse, pushed Lacey off it, he hovered his chair to the door and listened, he heard a pained groan from Lyric from the other side.

Frowning he ordered the door to open, and it revealed the room, just in time for him to see his creation in mid air doing a flip, Lacey sitting on the berth across from him.

His creation caught sight of him in the middle of her action and lost focus, landing flat on her front on the floor with another loud THUMP!

Jazz stayed frozen at the door, looking at his creation on the floor as she let out another pained groan, pulling herself up slowly.

"Am Ah missin somethin...?" Jazz asked slowly, switching his glance between the smaller cybertronian and his creation.

"We were exploring!" Lacey said in a chirpy tone.

"Explorin' the amount o'pain ya can get from flippin' in the air?" Jazz asked sceptically as Lyric got to her pedes and dizzily sitting on the table.

"We were exploring how much I can do with this new body" Lyric explained, looking a little embarrassed. "I can do so much more now than I used to... I don't have to actually develop muscles in this body." she sounded a tiny bit excited about it.

Jazz grew an easy going grin, chuckling lightly.

"Ah see, soon enough we'll be havin' ya trainin' before ya do more than fall on yer face"

Lyric duck her head, clearly embarrassed. "It started out as just testing how high I could jump...then we got a little carried away."

"Yeahhhh just a little" Lacey said cheekily.

"Well how 'bout ya take a break from all that ...explorin', an' come an' have breakfast?" he suggested, turning his chair around.  
>The two perked up at the mention.<p>

"Do you have any organic food?" Lacey asked as Lyric picked her up.

"Since yer in yer human body ya can still eat organic food, but theoretically ya can eat what we eat." Jazz explained as they followed him.

"Do I have to drink that glowy pinky stuff?" she asked again, hugging Lyric's indicator finger, her legs hanging off the hand.

Jazz chuckled again "Ya will have ta eventually." He told her, hovering over to the kitchen, picking up empty cubes and putting them in the private dispenser.

Lyric sat Lacey on the counter, moving to help Jazz with the cubes.  
>"You can at least try it right?" She asked her friend, setting down her own cube and then Jazz's.<p>

"do'yall have a cup small enough for me?" Lacey asked, looking between the two cubes almost her size.  
>"Hmmm..." Jazz hummed thoughtfully, looking around the kitchen area. "Lyric? Sparkles think ya can reach up that cabinet?"<br>"Uh... sure" the young femme said, moving back around the counter to reach said cabinet, she opened it and peered in "what am I looking for?"  
>"There's some small mixin' bowls in there, there should be some that are small enough" He instructed.<p>

"Hmmmm" she searched around, making her optics brighter to illuminate it. "Ah...I'm guessing its these...they look like soy sauce bowls."  
>"Somethin' o'the sort" Jazz agreed as she closed it again, it was small enough to pass as a large plate.<p>

"There we go" Jazz said taking the offered object, he then took Lyric's cube and poured some carefully into it, then handed it over to the organic. "bottom's up"

Lacey looked it over critically, poking the side of the bowl first a little.

"What does it taste like?"

"Its hard to explain, I don't have a good enough comparison to human food" Lyric said, sitting back down across from Jazz. "Its not too bad... though it gets kinda bland after eating it every time..."  
>"Once yer back ta full health we can start givin' ya different types o'energon" Jazz informed "righ' now yer still on medical grade though, it does tend ta get dull."<p>

"Is it gonna taste like cough medicine then?" Lacey asked, narrowing her eyes at the mech.

"Our version of it" he said with a shrug.

"Is it...?" Lyric asked, shaking her cube a little. "its not as bad as human medicine then..."

"Well...that's a plus... I guess..." the organic agreed, carefully bringing the bowl closer to herself, sniffing it first before taking a careful slip.

The two cybertronians waited anxiously for her reaction as she slowly took in the liquid, tasted it and then gulped it down, snapping her lips experimentally.  
>"Well...its not candy, but its okay...and its definitely not like medicine" she agreed.<p>

"Ya will be drinkin' that only fer a while once ya change into yer body" Jazz informed "it helps ya gettin' used ta everythin'. Doesn't really give ya a good boost on yer energy levels but it does help yer systems settle an' adjust."

"Is that why I spent so long sleeping in the beginning?" Lyric asked incredulously.

"Yeppers...well tha' an the fact that ya changed inta two bodies in a short time span" he explained, sipping at his own drink.

They fell silent for a moment, Lacey's mind wondering on what they had just said.

Eventually she couldn't keep the questions in any longer.

"When am I changing into a new body?"

"When we got the materials fer it" Jazz responded easily "an' if not when we run outta time, then when ya feel ready"  
>"I would stay in that body for as long as I could Lacey, once out of it, you can't go back." Lyric informed. "with that form, if you get lucky and we get to go outside, you can at least still slip within the humans. Get things you want or need before we go" she explained.<p>

Lacey thought on that for a long moment, before she sighed in resignation "I don't know... I actually don't know what I'd like to get and bring with me." she finally said.

"I can relate, I thought about it before as well, what would I bring with me? Clothes would not fit me anymore, animals would die due to lack of oxygen and food, eletronics are kind of pointless, food is pointless...the only things I could come up with was music, videogames and books...which these guys got pretty covered."

"What about your drawings?" Lacey asked curiously, noting how her friend's optics dimmed, her lips tightening

"I... thought about...about getting my files from my computer at least...but the risks..."

"Got that covered as well" Jazz interrupted, grinning at his surprised created.

"Prowler an' Ah would often take copies o'yer work"

"oh god... you've been SPYING on my computer!You little-"  
>"Special ops sweets, its mah job." Jazz grinned, unaffected by her stupor. "an' besides, hackin' inta a human computer is easy work".<p>

"Still! That's my private property!" She said, huffing and puffing her armor.

"Aren't ya glad Ah did so though?" Jazz said teasingly "now ya can have all yer files back"

"Um... I hate to interrupt, but does that mean mine was backed up too?" Lacey input.

"Should be" Jazz explained "it was Ironhide's job."

"Speaking of which" Lyric spoke up "any news on him? This is really ridiculous..." she looked at her friend pitifully.

Jazz frowned. " Nothin' Ah'm afraid. Prowler's keepin' an optic out while he works."

"As much as I'm totally enjoyin' hangin' out with Lyric, I do wish ta know..." Lacey said wearily.

"Would it be all right if we go looking for him? He's gotta be somewhere around" Lyric suggested, looking pleadingly to her carrier, trying to pull the best puppy dog look she could, she was still learning how to do that in the cybertronian version, but she had noticed that her doorwings seemed to do the trick for Jazz.

The mech hummed thoughtfully, considering.  
>"Ya promise not ta get outta the ship this time?"<p>

"Yes, I won't go anywhere outside the ship." she promised. "I swear. I'm more interested in finding Ironhide right now, get this sorted."

"Findin' im might not be how ya think it'll go" He pointed out.

"Still... enough is enough. He needs to man up and take responsibility."

"Yeah!" Lacey piped up, raising a fist in the air. "I want to give him a piece of my mind!"

"Jus' listen to 'im first before ya tell 'im things ya might regret later" he advised.

"He shoved me in a freakin' box! You can't expect me not to yell at him for that!"

"Okay okay" he said raising his hands in his defense "Ah guess ya can yell at 'im fer that, though I'd still let 'im speak first."

"We'll consider it" Lyric said promptly "so can we go?!"

"Yes, but ya gotta be back by lunch time" he said, crossing his arms over his chassis. "that means at noon missy, no comin' late."

"Got it" she said with a firm nod, getting up from her chair. "ready Lacey? We're going to hunt down your creator!"

"You bet I'm ready!" Lacey said, running over to her hand.

* * *

><p>They searched everywhere, it was almost noon now and they still had yet to find Ironhide, they had gotten to know the ark almost by memory now with how many rounds they had taken around the place.<p>

"How can a mech so big and so loud hide for so long?" Lyric asked out loud in frustration, briefly greeting trail breaker as he walked past them.

"Beats me" Lacey said from her shoulder, equally frustrated, she knew more about the rest of the crew than she did Ironhide by now, many having stopped when they met them in their search and others to whom Lyric asked for clues on the weapon specialist's whereabouts.

Lyric sighed "lets try the recroom again... it should be filling up at this hour... then we go back to my place."

"Kay..." Lacey said tiredly "we've been at this for hours anyway... I'm starving..."  
>Lyric frowned "it hasn't been that long..."<p>

"Yeah it has." Lacey insisted. "check your clock."

Lyric did so, and was surprised. She hadn't realized it until then, but all this time, she had been reading the wrong clock in her hud, she had been reading the cybertronian clock.  
>So quickly she tried to search a conversion program to see what time it really was.<br>"Holly...no wonder..." she was surprised. "I didn't realize Cybertronian hours were so long... all this time its been three hours for me, but for humans... its been almost an entire day... since when did I get used to this?"

"I guess that's another thing from your new body" Lacey commented tiredly. "Dude its been almost all day...and I'm starving...wasting awayyyyyy" she said, her silliness coming back now that she was so tired.

"I'm so sorry... I didn't realize... lets get you some energon kay? Right after the rec room, I promise."

"Pft, he's not gonna be there anyway" the organic said with a huff, crossing her arms and leaning against her friend's helmet.

Lyric refrained from commenting on that, she was discouraged enough as it was about Ironhide, she didn't want to make it any worse. He had been a nice mech when she'd met him, he could be a brighter future for her friend, and she wasn't about to block her from that chance.

Before either could think on anything else to say, the faint sounds of yelling started coming from ahead.  
>"That's weird..." Lyric's optics narrowed, the femme fine tuning her audios. "that sounds like Windy..."<p>

"And someone else." Lacey noted, perking up.  
>"I think its coming from the rec room" Lyric hurried up, doorwings set firmly behind her and her pace determined.<p>

" And what the HELL makes you think I even want to be here in the first place?! You're the one who brought me here! I only said okay because I fucking thought you'd get in and out, but-oh no-nope! Wrong! Tell me, what sort of change in my behavior showed I was in even mildly interested in hanging out with ANYONE, much less you?! " They heard their friend shout. " You don't like my attitude? Oho, well TOO FUCKING BAD! You're going to take me in here and do shit I want nothing to do with, you better sure as hell know I'll be in a dangerous fucking mood! "

Lyric winced inwardly at the amaunt of cursing, hearing mirage's own yells now.

"Watch your language young lady! You are behaving most inapropriatly! Like it or not the world does NOT revolve around yourself!"

" Since I'm such a brat, then maybe you should do yourself a favor and SEND ME BACK! "

Lacey winced at that one this time. Wow, that was harsh.

"I have a feeling things are about to get very harsh..." She spoke, looking up at the femme sheepishly.

" I didn't mean it like that! " Mirage told her.

" Well I certainly wish that you did! It'd make it a whole lot easier to get you to take me fucking HOME! I'm done playing along with this! " Windy continued to shout loudly.

" And put their lives in danger?! Now you really are being selfish! The only thing protecting them now, is the fact that you aren't there! "

" WHAT'S THE POINT IF I DON'T EVEN GET TO SEE THEM!? IF I CAN'T EVEN TALK TO THEM!? " she screamed shrilly. " I DON'T CARE IF I'M BEING SELFISH! OR IF ANYONE HERE THINKS I'M A BITCH! You FUCKERS are planning an indefinite trip away from the PLANET which might as well be FOREVER since chances are that when we get back, MY FAMILY WILL BE LONG DEAD IN THEIR GRAVES, FORCING me to be stuck with NO ONE but STRANGERS! I'm already cursed to live god-knows-how-long, where they'll be nothing but a FUCKING SPECK in my life! If I'm going to be forced to live that long, then I want to be with them as much as possible! My whole family has each other for comfort, if I'm killed! When they go, I'll have no-one! If I can't have that, THEN YOU SHOULD'VE FUCKING LET ME DIE BACK THERE!"

Mirage didn't reply, too shocked from those words, too hurt, even if he didn't let it show.

That was when Lyric managed to burst into the room, quickly spotting the two.

"Windy!" she called, rushing over. "What the hell is going on here?!" there were a lot of bots around in their own tables, all of them quiet and looking.

Windy turned her gaze towards them. Normally she'd be embarrassed to have had such an outburst in front of anyone but her family, and even then, she'd still have some shame. If she felt that way at all, it was vastly outmatched by the negative emotions powering her glare.

She gave a snort, folding her arms as she looked away. " Just me pissing about how much I resent having been born and being expected to accept this 'life'..."

Lyric and Lacey exchanged looks between Windy and Mirage.

Eventually Mirage sighed, nodding to them, and walked out of the room without another word.

Lyric bent down, offering a hand to her friend "Come on... lets get you out of this place..." she suggested in a soothing tone.

"Yeah." Lacey agreed eagerly. Negativity and shouting wasn't her cup of tea, so any chance she got to lighten the mood, she was all over it.

"How about you come help us out? You can be the Sherlock to our Watson."

" No offense, but I'm not interested. At all. " She said in blunt tone. " If I'm going to hitch a ride, it's going to be back to 'my room'. "

"your room is their room "Lyric pointed out logically "if you come with us we can at least get you away from them for a while, get you some privacy...and you can talk to us all you want about this...its not much, but we're the closest thing you've got now to whats out there."

" I BARELY know you guys. Everyone but you, at least. We only met a few months before this hellhole. Over cartoons and other crap that kinda feels like insignificant bullshit right now, all things considered. " She said, tone becoming more hostile. " And yes, it's 'their room'. But unless they're complete dumbshits, I'm pretty sure they'll be leaving me alone. Which is what I want. "

Lyric frowned "I just want to help you. I can't fix everything, but I can make it better, if you let me.

I'm not going to force you into anything, but please think about it Windy, you're making it so you WILL be completly alone. You don't WANT to go there, you know I've been there, I'm telling you you don't want to be in that place."

"We at least know some of what you're going through. I didn't really have a family before they burst into my life, but I know how it feels to think one thing, only to find out everything I once knew was a lie." Lacey added meekly.

" You know what, guys? I really...REALLY don't want to hear it. Because at the end of the day past all the dramas and traumas, your ups and downs, you're the ones that are getting a better life and the happy loving families you never had, even if the prospect of being killed is at an all time high. " Windy snapped. " Yeah, you're the closest thing I have to my family right now. But the more I see you guys, the more angry I get. At everything. "

"At least your parents are around you..." Lacey began, frowning."My 'father' won't face me, either out of fear or blantant not caring, and no one will tell me about my 'mother'. I'm starting to think there is no mother in my picture."

Frowning in thought, she then offered to change the subject. "Have you at least eaten yet?"

" Not hungry. " Windy said turning her back to them now, instead beginning to risk injury by intending to climb down while her anger still bubbled inside her, muting her fear of heights. " And the only reason why you're big bad bear of a 'papa' isn't around is because he's had the honor of catching bits of my previous bitchings to my lovely owners, so he's scared shitless of rejection. They all are, now more then ever...I know-I'm a horrible person. "

"WHY are you being so difficult?!" Lyric said, starting to lose her own patience " we get it, its hard! But you're NOT making it any easier! ESPECIALLY on yourself!"

"You shouldn't be fine with that!" Lacey agreed, a little hurt now that her attempts were proving fruitless.

"I don't CARE!" Windy burst out "its easy for YOU to say those things! But I'm the one that's losing my family! I'm the one that no matter what is going to be alone anyways!" they could see that tears had started to gather at the corner of her eyes "I'll never get to see the ones I love ever again! And its their fault! They might as well have left me to die! I don't WANT to be here!I don't want to suffer through this fucking shit!" Her voice was gradually breaking, until it sounded like a little girl crying, defenseless and scared.

It was enough to break Lyric's anger into nothingness, the femme cupping her friend protectively in her hands.

"We know... that's why, whether you like it or not, we're going to be here for you." She said, making her way out, glaring at the mechs that were still staring at them before the doors closed behind them.

* * *

><p>Convincing Jazz to let Windy stay with them had been no problem, an organic really didn't take that much space... and it was a comfort in a way to have the others close to Lyric.<p>

On the other hand, they'd soon learned that Windy wished to be left alone in Lyric's room, so they let her be for the rest of the day and went to their own thing.

When night time came and Lyric had to put Lacey to bed, they found that Windy was already asleep in one of the makeshift beds they had set up for them.  
>Lacey had soon followed into the land of bliss, but Lyric stayed awake, unable to rest, her friend's words going over her mind, echoing, growing a hole somewhere deep inside.<p>

Eventually minutes turned into hours... every tiny little sound could be heard, she was deathly alert, often looking to the side to check on her sleeping room mates.

Then suddenly, somewhere around three am she felt a surge of energy and feelings, it startled her enough to let a gasp out, but it didn't hurt, in fact it had been joyous, loving, tender. And as fast as it came, it was gone, leaving a warm feeling of love in its tracks.  
>It took her a moment to realize that it had probably come from Prowl and Jazz...so they were still awake...<p>

Temptingly, she looked at the door, wondering for a moment before she silently got up from her berth, and ordered the door to open.

The living room was dark and quiet, she stepped out none the less, walking over to her creator's room door, the light was on red, meaning it was locked. She looked back towards the exit door of their quarters, only to see the same red light.  
>Sighing, she gathered her courage for a few minutes before she finally pressed the buzzer on the door to ask for permission to come in.<p>

A few more minutes passed before she felt a presence snake its way to her spark, checking if she was awake.  
>She responded in kind, recognizing it as Prowl's.<br>' Prowl? Are you awake?' she asked just to be certain.

' Please wait a moment, I will be out in a few kliks' he responded, his voice sounding a little more emotional than it usually did, and not in a bad way.

Lyric did so, getting out from being in front of the door, leaning against the wall quietly, her optics on her pedes.  
>Eventually the door hissed open, allowing Prowl outside, he quickly closed it behind him, looking at his creation cautiously.<br>"Lyric" he called softly "Is something the matter?" he was stiff and apprehensive, though the young femme could not see that for she kept her optics on the floor.

"Yeah...sorry. I … I was wondering if I could go for a walk...I couldn't recharge" she explained. "The door was locked so..." she shifted a little uncomfortably.

His optic ridges rose in surprise, the mech relaxing now that he understood the problem a bit more.

"I see, what is keeping you from recharge?" He asked, resting an arm around her shoulders, guiding her further into the room, ordering for the lights to come on dimn.

"Its...its nothing... I'm just a little disturbed is all...confused..."

"Does this have to do with what happened earlier between your friend and her creator?"

She nodded faintly, accepting the mech's guidance over to the couch and sinking onto it with a loud ex vent.  
>"I can't stop worrying about her... I feel so useless." she admitted, watching as Prowl sat next to her, a hand resting between her doorwings.<p>

"It is a difficult situation I admit" He said thoughtfully. "Perhaps, this is not something you can solve alone, have you considered that?"

"Well yeah I have..." she admitted tiredly, completely oblivious to the mech pulling her closer to himself, making her leaning against him. "I mean her creators are clearly trying... me and Lacey too... but I'm not sure that's enough... Prowl she WANTS to die if she can't stay with her human family. I mean I miss mine too... to some extent" Prowl frowned at this, worried, but did not let her see it, moving to pet her helm against his chassis. "But my parents grew neglectful of me very early on...I can't say I miss them too much... I wouldn't want them dead or anything...but in a way I felt ready to let go... but Windy... she's so much younger...and her family did love her and coddle her a lot."

"It will be difficult for her to accept." He agreed, embracing his child close, her body felt cold compared to his own. But it was only natural to feel that way. "If at all possible...short of erasing her memory files, she will likely have to live with that grief for the rest of her life."

Lyric let out a small whimper at the idea, curling up closer to him.

"I don't want that for her...she's my friend... Prowl please...is there really no better way to fix it for her?"

"I'm afraid not." He said with controlled calm.

"I don't want to see her suffer like this... she'll kill herself eventually, go mad with grief..." she subconsciously clung to her Sire, not realizing how needed she must have seemed then, the exhaustion and the sadness clouding her processor and pride.

"We will see how she does for a while longer, if it comes to it, we can propose a memory erase." He offered.

"Won't she forget about us then? About me?"

Prowl took a moment, knowing the answer, but not pleased with having to tell it to his creation.

"Yes." he confirmed, feeling how his child's form trembled at the simple word. "Her personality chips and spark would remain the same, she would still feel her grief partially, and act accordingly to her personality, but without the memory files she will not be able to place that pain for long and will be eased from the grief faster."

"I don't want to lose her...it would be like she'd die."

"No, Lyric she would not at all die, it is more like when humans have amnesia, it is still them, and they still posses feelings of the past, but they cannot remember things associated to them, so they accept easily." He tried to explain.

"I don't know how she'll take that offer..." she murmured, optics dimming as the comfort of the body holding her lulled her.

"We will see in time." He said, continuing with his petting on the young femme, watching her sag tiredly.

' Jazz?' he called through the bond ' is the berth clean?'

'Ya Prowler, Berth's clean, there's no signs left, the ventilation took care o'the smell pretty quick. Did she hear us?'

' It would seem not, she was merely having difficulties with recharging, I will be bringing her with me. I believe returning her to her room would result in a rechargeless night'

Jazz sent him the feeling of a query, to which Prowl pushed down, telling him he'd explain later.  
>Moving around his creation he adjusted her slightly "Come, lets get you to a berth. You need rest." he told her.<p>

"I don't want to go back in there..." she said in a small voice.

"I am aware." he said, lifting her off the couch, the femme letting out a little yelp of surprise. "You can recharge with us for tonight." he explained, holding her close, feeling the heat radiating from her cheekplates.

"T-thank you..." she mumbled, ducking her head into his neck.

"You are more than welcome" he said, opening his door and entering their dark room, Jazz shifted on the berth, his visor visible in the dark.  
>As soon as Prowl laid her down the saboteur pulled her closer to himself, snuggling her into a protective embrace.<p>

Prowl soon followed, covering the other side, effectively the two cocooning her in warmth and comfort, finally giving the femme what she needed to recharge.

* * *

><p>A large thanks to the real Windy and Lacey who gave me precious input for this chapter. I couldn't have done it without you guys!<p> 


	27. Ironhide's secret

In the next few days, Lyric and Lacey had no luck finding Ironhide nor helping out windy. In the end, they were feeling pretty useless and helpless and had slowly started to give up their attempts and started doing things of their own.

Today however, there was something the two were looking forward to and anxious about at the same time.

Shioji was finally being allowed visits after her operation when they first came, and neither knew how well she was fairing with the events. It would also give them a chance to see DJ whom had been pretty busy around her own creators.

"Woah! Slow down Lyric! This thing's gonna fly if ya keep pushin' any faster!" Jazz was holding onto his hover chair for dear life, succeeding in remaining seated when they went around another corner.

"Woah Ly!" Lacey shouted, equally clinging to the back of the chair for dear life "HEEL! SLOW DOWN! I DON'T DO SPEED LY!"

Their pleas did little to slow down the anxious femme however, and it was a relief when the medbay doors came into their sights.

"Ah'm gonna have Prowler give ya a speedin' ticket fer that one lil miss" Jazz said, letting out a vent of relief as the femme picked up her dizzy human friend in a hurry and left Jazz to a pair of medics coming his way before hurrying off to the private rooms and searching for her friend's.

"Oh my god... I think I'm gonna barf..." Lacey groaned before Lyric knocked on the door.

"Come in" A mech's deep voice answered, the door sliding open silently to allow them entrance.

Inside were three mechs, Ratchet was next to the unconscious cybertronian femme on the berth, checking some readings, and on the right were Red Alert and Inferno.  
>"Ah Lyric, good thing you could come." Lacey let out another groan, making her presence known. "And Lacey I see."<p>

"How is she?" Lyric asked tensely, observing the strange being lying on the berth with avid interest, it was the first time she was seeing another like her. And it was so strange.

"She's doing fine. Her systems are all up and healthy, the only thing keeping us from waking her from medical stasis now is the problem on how we're going to wake her up."

"We're afraid she might be a little...defensive and confused when she wakes" Inferno explained, patting his mate's back lightly, Red Alert would not take his optics off the femme for any reason.

Lyric nodded at this, settling at the end of the berth.

"That's why you called us." she stated, gripping the bar at the end of the berth. "we're the only thing familiar that she has to here. She knows both me and Lacey...and until she realized I am who I am, Lacey is going to be our one way of controlling things." she looked down at her tiny friend.

"Gee, no pressure" Lacey said dryly.

"We wouldn't ask this of you if we didn't think it was absolutely necessary." Red Alert spoke for the first time "We saw how the other creation reacted towards Mirage and Hound..." his optics dimmed.

"Its going to be quite the shock for her as well to find herself in this body" Ratchet added, looking towards Lyric knowingly "I'm sure you're aware of what that feels like."

Lyric's visor dimmed, the femme nodding in agreement.

"So, how's this goin' t'go?" Lacey asked, recomposing herself from their run there.

"We're going to get her out of medical stasis, she will come out of it slowly, hopefully she will not have a violent reaction at first." Ratchet explained. "If she does, Lyric I want you to keep Lacey safe from her."

At this Lyric nodded firmly, one hand coming up in front of the girl as a barrier of sorts while the other held her.

"When she comes to and starts to realize her surroundings, I want you to talk to her, call her, and ask her normal questions."

"Okay...sounds easy'nuff" Lacey said with a nod.

"Then you have to start explaining to her where she is, why, and what happened."

"You...realize this is Lacey right?" Lyric said doubtfully as the young human looked intimidated. "That is way too much information for her to go over coherently..."

"Yyyyyyeeaaaahhh..." Lacey agreed, shifting uncomfortably in her friend's hand.

Ratchet snorted, not looking too surprised "Figures..."

"W-whats that supposed to mean!?" Lacey squeaked, a mixture between embarrassed and outraged.

"It means I have one more thing to hit your Sire for."

"What...does that mean...?" Lacey asked hesitantly.

"Anyway" Ratchet continued, ignoring her question "By then, we will hopefully have calmed her down enough to talk civilized and finish what you can't remember."

"Don't worry Lacey, I'll help you out" Lyric told her, while the young human death glared the medic.

"I still wanna know what he meant." she said, narrowing her eyes at him "Did he screw up my processor?"

"I think he was insinuating heritage or something" Lyric whispered to her while Ratchet began to shut down the machines.

"Lovely..." she commented dryly again.

"Here we go" Ratchet warned.

Slowly the machine's hum, died down, and they waited expectantly, watching the still frame as it began to boot.

The minutes began to feel like hours, the moment becoming impossibly tense as the first twitch of fingers happened.

Then, all of a sudden, the body jerked, the femme taking in a deep gasp as if coming out of the water, and flailing her arms and legs, trying to push away invisible things.

Lyric promptly stepped back, shielding Lacey while the three mechs made to secure the newly upgraded femme.

"Shhh... calm down, everything's fine. No one's going to hurt you" Inferno spoke softly to his creation's audio, holding her chassis down with one hand, and petting her head with the other while securing it on the pillow.

The femme tried to shout something, but all that came out was garbled words and static.

"Now's your turn Lacey..." Lyric whispered to her friend, reminding her of her task and carefully aproaching.  
>The femme's optics were still offline, it would seem she was having more trouble than Lyric did to figure out how the controls worked.<p>

"R-righ'..." Lacey said, peeking over the hand as much as she dared before taking in a deep breath.  
>"Shi!" she called "Shioji! Calm down! Its Kage! Remember? We're IM buddies"<p>

Being restrained by the three mechs, the femme had little option but to listen, tense and shaking in fear, her head tried to tilt slightly towards the voice.

"Calm down" Lacey repeated, trying to sound firmer than she felt. "No one here is going to hurt you. Just don't hit anyone"

"Shi this is Jessica" Lyric spoke, taking the opportunity that the other had not yet onlined her optics. "we need you to listen to us very very carefully" she said slowly and clearly. "A lot has happened recently while you were unconscious, most of which is going to shock you and make you panic a little, and with reason, but we're right here to tell you its fine."

Slowly, the frightened femme nodded.

"Good. Now, you should be looking at complete darkness right now, try to actually look around it, there should be a small icon, like a computer's, asking you if you want to "online optical sensors" " and she looked towards Ratchet at that, to confirm her directions.

The medic nodded, keeping his optics on the readings he was getting from the femme, she was calming down a little.

"Now don't be scared, its going to be a bit of a shock." She warned. "when your eyes open, I want you to focus on Kage first, okay? Ignore everyone else in the room"

Lyric held the small human out further, waiting for their friend to online the optics. When they finally blinked on in a bright azure color, they looked startled, darting everywhere, particularly to the big mechs holding her.

Lacey clapped her hands, trying to gain her attention "Over here Shi."

Shi's optics darted to the source of the noise, then widened as she recognized the human...and how small she was...sitting in a robot's hand. She waved her hand at her, grinning sheepishly "Hi"

Again the new femme tried to speak, garbled noise being the only thing that came out.

"There is an option in the many menus that popped up for you" Lyric spoke, trying hard to ignore the shocked expression from the other when she realized where Jessica was. "in one of them, likely on the left menu, you will find the options for your voice. Try them out."

Hesitantly, the new femme shifted her optics to her left, unaccustomed to doing so only internally, it was something Lyric herself had had to practice. After a moment there was a static snap, like a radio turning on, and she opened her mouth to utter the first words.

"W-where am I? W-what happened? W-what am I?!"she sounded panicked, scared even, Lyric had only heard that one once or twice, and they had never been good times.

"Its ok, we're here..." She spoke as softly as she could manage, reaching out to touch the other's pede.

"Its a long story, and very complicated."

"W-what happened to you?!" she said in horror, watching her friends.

"Sadly the same that has happened to you" she motioned gently towards her body. "I'm not quite sure where to start, but if you promise to calm down, they'll release you, so we can get comfortable enough for us to tell you the full story."

Slowly, the other nodded, and the mechs made to let go, doing so slowly, just in case she started to panic again. When she didn't, Lyric walked around the berth and set Lacey down on the berth side table, while moving to help her friend sit up against the pillows "There, better huh?" she asked, before stepping back. Shioji was still looking at them oddly.

"Now... where to start?"

"Well, I suppose it all started when Ly found a giant metal cat..." Lacey began.

It took them hours, explaining everything that happened in just a few months was not an easy task, and doing so at a rate that the other could keep up with was even more challenging.

By the end of it, it was late in the human day, and Lacey was showing signs of getting tired. They had been brought energon at some point or another, but now it was actually time for Lyric to take her back to her quarters.

Watching her smaller friend leaning against her armor, half asleep, Lyric let out a sigh. "I'm sorry Shi... I have to take her away, you should get some sleep too..."

"W-wait! Are you just going to leave me here?!" She asked, looking around in distress.

"Its okay... Ratchet wont let you out so soon... and I can come back tomorrow to visit, all right? Lacey too"

"But..." She said hesitantly, looking at the door. "What if THEY come back?"

"They mean you no harm" she said, understanding she meant her new creators. "You should have seen them when they brought you in, Red Alert was ready to tear down some walls... they're really protective of you." she gave her a smile, trying to be reassuring.

"But its really awkward...you can't leave meeee!" and the tone she used, clued Lyric in that it was one of their infamous childish talks, she grinned mischievously, playing along.

"Can't I now?"

"Nope!"

"We'll see about that" she took a few steps back, watching as Shioji rolled on

the berth with a whine, trying to reach for her clumsily, still not used to moving her limbs.

"How can you do this to meeee? Don't leave meee!"

"I will see you tomorrow Shioji" She said with a smile, moving off to the door, pretending not to care for the other's pleas. Just before she left, she made sure to give her a grin, walking out with the half asleep Lacey.

Upon stepping out however, Lyric's grin fell down straight into a frown, she had not expected this at all... in front of her, towards the entrance of the medbay, was none other than Ironhide himself, dragging both Sunstreaker and Sideswipe to Ratchet, who was barking angrily at the two.

Scowl growing firm, Lyric poked Lacey a little, and strode forward in sharp steps.

Lacey swatted at her finger, a resounding clang and a cry going unheard by Ratchet's bellows.

"Ow! What the?! Lyric!" she said grumpily.

"Get ready, this is about to get ugly" Lyric growled lowly, optics set on Ironhide.

Ironhide and Ratchet had not noticed them yet, which was good, he would not run away this time, the twins however seemed to have noticed them coming, and were secretly snickering to each other, they were getting their revenge on Ironhide.

Lyric stopped just behind Ratchet, posture stritct and firm, very reminiscent of her Sire when he was truly angry at someone for missing discipline.

"Ironhide" her voice was cold and icy, and it made all four mechs freeze.

Slowly, Ratchet turned to look at them, and Ironhide's optics were widdening brightly, losing their color steadily.

"You have some answering to do" she said, lifting her hand with Lacey sitting on it. "and no running away this time you big coward."

"You put me in a BOX!" Lacey growled at him, sounding very tiny and non intimidating compared to Lyric's glare "A frickin' box!"

"And you've been running away from your creation for days, not giving her any explanation which she has more than right to" Lyric added "Time to grow some balls old man. Explain"

To his merit, Ironhide had not yet run away, although any mech in the room certainly felt like doing so, carefully inching away. An angry femme was a bad thing in general, they might have gone almost extinct in general, but they were still lethal with their agility and skills. Even an untrained one could most likely outmaneuver a big and bulky mech.

Not waiting for him to answer, she took the remaining steps forwards, and gently dumped her friend in Ironhide's large hands.

"I'll pick her up in the morning" she said, before turning around, ready to leave.

"Lyric wait" Ratchet spoke up, stopping her in her tracks "Ironhide you leave, Lyric, you stay, I need your help for one more thing" Ratchet said, giving the twins an evil smirk.  
>"B-but" Ironhide started, though when Lyric turned to glare at him with that cold visor, his lip plates snapped shut, and he slowly inched his way to the door.<p>

Lyric then turned back to Ratchet, crossing her arms with a huff, waiting impatiently. "What?"

Ratchet motioned for the twins "Ironhide was just telling me that these two went into your Sire's office.." he started, letting a pause settle in so that they could feel her glare being diverted to them. "they thought it would be funny to glue all the furniture to the ceiling, Prowl's crashed because of that, Jazz is already attending to him and bringing him out of it, but the point stands, these two need to learn a lesson."

"I see..." she said with an eery calm that gave the twins a chill up their spinal struts. "I have permission to do to them whatever I want?"

"Oh yes" Ratchet said with that evil smirk "Whatever you want... and I will be more than happy to help you"

"Good... get the glue"

Later that day, the twins were facing a legendary moment of their punishment career, glued to each other, chest to chest, hip to hip, left to wander around the ark like that the entire orn, and falling victim to anyone who passed by them and started laughing their afts off the floor.

The only one that had publicly not proved of Lyric's punishment had been Prowl, although internally, they all knew he was very proud.

* * *

><p>Lacey shifted uneasily, silently in a staring match with Ironhide, who looked equally uncomfortable.<p>

He had brought them to what appeared to be his quarters, very different from Jazz's and Prowl's, who despite all the chaos, was much more neat.

His was a one berthroom quarters, weapons were scattered all over the place, as were pieces of them, set in neat orders that only made sense to the weapons specialist. It also looked like it hadn't been cleaned for a while, and one of the lights was flickering.

"So..." he started, uneasy and scratching the back of his helm noisily. "Uhhh..."

"You shoved me in a BOX" Lacey restated harshly, glaring at the mech.

"Uh...right... sorry 'bout that..." he said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously "It was the best thing we had."

"You SHOVED me in a box!" She repeated.

"Is that really all yer gonna be rantin' about?" He asked uneasily, if she was this affected about a box, he really wasn't sure about facing the rest.

"Oh no, no no no no. I'll get to that." she snapped "I just can't believe you shoved me in a BOX!"

"Yer never gonna let me live that down are ya?" He asked, sitting down in a slump, his large weight making her jump a little.

Her glare said it all, she was not going to forgive him for it so soon.

"Even DJ got better treatment! She got a police officer taking her!"

"Well I dun' turn inta a cop car all righ'?" He grumbled, toning down his audios a little because of his creation's high pitched voice. "An' we were pressed fer time"

Lacey took a moment, glaring at him, thinking.

"still was a horrible idea" she grumbled.

"Ah know, an' fer what its worth, ah'm sorry." He said, sounding uncharacteristically gentle.

"Is THAT why you were avoiding me?"

"Well...no" He admired, looking sheepish, it was a strange sight considering his impressive size and bulk. "Ah didn' know ya'd be tha' upset 'bout that..."

"...Was it because you didn't want to be around me then?"

"What? No!" he said, straightening suddenly, his heavy armor giving a nasty creek. "That aint it"

"Then what was it?" She said, frowning in confusion.

He sighed, looking around, too awkward to look at his creation in the optics.

"Its complicated Silver Claw..."

"Wait what?" She asked, taken aback for a moment.

He took a moment, trying to understand her reaction.

"What what?"

"What did you say?"

"I said it was complicated."

"No, no after that!"

"Silver Claw?" He rose his optic ridges.

"Yes! That!"

"They didn't tell ya yer designation?Not even Ratch'?"

"Uhhh..." she squirmed a little "me and doctors...don't get along..."

He nodded at this, as if he understood perfectly well.

"Not even Prowl or Jazz? I know you've been stayin' with'em"

"No. And BY THE WAY" she said glaring at him once again "if you knew where I was, why didn't you come and get me?!"

"Uhhh..." was his slow response, inching away a little from her glare. "Its um...complicated."

"URGH!" she threw her hands in the air in frustration. "Everything's complicated with you!"

He scratched the side of his chin, looking away a little embarrassed "usually its pretty darn straight forward"

"Don't cuss!" she hissed, making him blink down at her oddly.

"Righ'... sorry" He muttered.

"So, whats so complicated about you running away from me?"

"Umm..." He hesitated, looking around as if trying to find answers. "Well I..." he fumbled with his thoughts, trying to find a good way of saying it, but there just wasn't one. Sometimes he envied Prowl's processor.

Eventually, he let out a long vent, giving up.

"This ain't gonna sound nice." He warned.

"You can start by telling me you're my sire." She said sarcastically.

"Righ'... I suppose I shoulda started there..." he muttered.

"And my carrier is...?"

Silence, Ironhide looked away, this time not looking anxious nor nervous, but rather, old and depressed.

"Gone" He finally spoke, in a barely audible tone.

The silence grew uncomfortable, Lacey shifting.

"Oh..." was all she managed to say, looking away for the first time.

"Long time ago" He continued, despite the obvious effort it was for him to speak about it. "I didn't even get ta see 'er when ya were sparked... not even after tha'." he continued, looking back down at his creation, whose head was low. "Ah know she was real proud of ya, an' that she didn't want ta send ya to me. But all things considered, its a good thing she did. Yer alive because of her" He reached down, and with one big and chubby finger, lifted her chin to look back up at him.

"How...?" She asked, her voice sounding almost hollow.

Ironhide frowned, looking slightly angry now, letting go of her chin. "Cons... she worked with other femmes, their own group o'soldiers. They were taken out by'em, those were the last of the femmes."

"So... the five of us are the only ones left...?" She asked, her anger subsiding "wow..."

"Yeh... which is why we kept ya hidden." He explained "I didn't know how ta tell ya about yer carrier...I didn't want ya ta suffer..."

"I … I guess I can kind of understand that... still would have been better if you did tell me earlier..."

"I know... I'm sorry." He said with that gently tone, reaching out again, hesitant, then pet her head with his large digit, it wasn't heavy or rough, but rather surprisingly caring.

"Yeah... me too..." she said, idly reaching for his large digit, patting it. "So... Silver Claw?"


	28. Transform Androll out?

Thank you all for reading, reviewing and faving! it really helps me write more! I'm sorry for the delay, life has been bitting me hard.

* * *

><p>Today was unexpected.<p>

Well that was the best description Lyric had for it anyway. She had woken up like the usual, now a little more relieved that she didn't have to worry about leaving Lacey alone with Windy while she slept with her creators.

Ever since they had had their little talk, Lacey had been spending more time with the weapon's specialist, giving a bit of a break to Lyric, although of course, still popped up every once in a while to say hi.

Today, however, she joined her creators for breakfast after waking up a little late, and noted that they had not set up any food for Windy.

"Did something happen?" She asked curiously, moving to her chair with the typical sluggishness of the morning.

"Nothin' important." Jazz said. Moving around the table to set her cube in front of her. He had just been declared back to full health the previous day, and was enjoying showing how well he could move again. Neither Prowl nor Lyric made any signs of paying too much attention, even if they felt happy for him.

"'Raj came by ta take 'er for the day, he's gonna try again." He continued, going back to his seat. "So we thought ta make some plans o'our own." He glanced towards Prowl as if giving him his cue to speak.

"Yes…well we have decided to take…a…" For once, Prowl seemed to struggle with a word, it was a curious sight.

"It starts with day…" Jazz intoned playfully "and ends with off." He snickered.

"You're taking a day off?" Lyric asked curiously, one of her door wings tilting slightly to the side.

"Yes…a…day off…" Prowl said slowly, as if the word burned his mouth. "Everything is under control for now, and we have scheduled ahead of time today's plans so that they can handle things without us for a few hours-"  
>"A day" Jazz input.<p>

"- yes…a day. As I was saying, we have made all needed plans, and we were hoping that with the free time we have managed, you would agree to come with us outside of the ark to enjoy some of the nature that surrounds us."

Instantly Lyric perked up, door wings rising high behind her in peaked interest.

"I get to go outside?!"

"Be calm, it is only if you agree to stay within the perimeter, close enough to us in case anything happens."

Lyric opened her mouth, about to argue but Prowl held up a hand, successfully quieting her.

"I realize the likelihood of decepticons being found in the jungle is very small, but you are still new to being your size, and walking around an organic planet with a cybertronian body can be trickier than it sounds. We just wish to make sure, you will be allowed to explore on your own as long as you do not stray too far."

She huffed, slumping back into her chair and bringing her cube closer

"I guess that's as good as I'm going to get huh? Fine… I agree to your terms…as long as you keep your side of the deal".

"'Course we will girly" Jazz answered before Prowl could, the mech did not like to have his authority questioned, and Lyric had been on the border of doing just that. "An' it's a lovely day outside today, bright an' sunny."

A small smile graced her features, the young femme could already see it...

"That sounds nice" she said, taking a sip of her energon, and slapping at her chassis when it purred her happiness.

Both her creators chuckled lightly, already used to the act by now and returned to their morning rations.

* * *

><p>It wasn't long after breakfast that they finally left the Ark.<p>

Lyric was more than overwhelmed for the chance of feeling fresh air once more, and the many smells of nature surrounding their hide out.

Almost instantly she had dashed ahead of them, keeping within sight, yet still going off on her own, setting Prowl more than a little bit on edge.

"Relax Prowler... girl needs ta stretch her gyros." Jazz told his mate in amusement, watching as well.

"I would rather she stretch them without injuring herself." He replied tersely, arms crossed over his chassis.

"Yeh well... meh too, but ya know that ain't gonna happen." Jazz admitted as they chose a clearing as a nice place to stop, it had a pleasant view of the precipice, and the sound of a faraway waterfall served as a soothing and relaxing factor to the wonderful scenery.

"Moments like these make me realize I will in fact miss Earth" Prowl admitted as the two fell into meditation stances.

"Ah feel ya there" Jazz agreed, giving his creation one last glance, making sure she saw them stopping and that she wouldn't wander off too far.

"Hound is already making arrangements to have some samples from earth to take with us, should we find a suitable place of our own somewhere...however unlikely that is."

Jazz nodded uncertainly, shifting into his more comfortable meditating stance.

They soon fell into silence, focusing on their exercise, giving attention to Lyric's whereabouts only every once in a while.

By the trees, Lyric had been appreciating her own view of Nature, observing the many jungle flowers that she had never seen before, and the strange jungle trees. This was of course a completely different environment from the one she had grown up in, so it was just that more fascinating.

At one point, she could have sworn she'd seen a monkey somewhere between the dense vegetation, but because she was aware of her limits into wandering off, she had stayed where she was.

Besides, what would she do to the poor monkey? She didn't even like them too much.

Looking above to the trees that were even bigger than her new size, she could hear the many tropical birds and animals chanting their life away, she could once in a while spot colors and silhouettes of said birds, and at one point she was pretty sure she saw a parrot, which made her wander where she was...

A thought occurred to her briefly, and she glanced back towards her creators, they were both focused in their own thing, and momentarily unaware of her thoughts.  
>Approaching one of the large and very thick trees, she grabbed a branch and tested its strength, she was pleased to see that even with her weight it was very strong.<p>

The tree went very high up, and even the lowest branches were barely within her reach, so she took a few steps back into the clearing and looked back to the tree, taking in a deep breath.  
>Before she could reconsider if this was or not a good idea, she sprinted forwards, jumping up onto the tree when close enough and taking one or two running steps up before gravity started pulling and she grabbed the branch she needed.<p>

She heard a yelp of surprise from the clearing but didn't dare to look back, her focus was now on the tree limbs, making sure she was secure.

"Lyric get down from there this instant!" Prowl's voice bellowed, startling her with its alarm.

"Its fine! It can take my weight" she said, peeking down over her shoulder and seeing her creators approaching. She rolled her optics behind her visor, really, could they be even more overprotective? It annoyed her slightly that they acted like she couldn't do anything... hadn't she proved herself already? She had after all managed well in the last Decepticon attack!

Ignoring the concerned looks she made to climb a few more branches up.

"Managin' yer weight ain't the question 'ere!" Jazz spoke up, sounding equally concerned, if not a little angry for her disobedience. "Yer not used to yer body yet!"

"I'm doing just fine!" she threw back at him, continuing her climb, not even looking down, her focus was now on the top, as far up as the tree could hold her.

"Do not make us come up to get you" Prowl warned.

"Will you quit fussing over me every klik?" she snapped, tired of their commands. "I'm not a child."

"On the contrary, you are still underage and under our care, so please come down before we are forced to come up with an appropriate punishment for you."

"How about no?" she shot back "Besides, what are you going to do to me? Lock me in my room? Its not like I haven't been stuck inside for like... months?god knows how long."

"If we have ta, we can forbid ya from seein' yer friends fer a while."

"You just try that why don't you?" she said carelessly. It WAS a bad punishment, but she was trying to make a point here, they had no right to control her life or her decisions, and she was proving that.  
>Finally she reached the limit of where the tree could hold her.<p>

She sat down, and looked around, appreciating the view. As sad as it was, she could see no signs of civilization near, only jungle and more jungle...

The silence from below told her that her creators had eventually given up once they saw she had sat down, which meant she got some privacy back again.

She let out a long vent, listening in to the sounds, and wishing to see something...anything she could recognize. There was nothing...

She spent a while there, every once in a while sneaking a glance down, seeing Prowl and Jazz back to their previous spots, meditating once more.  
>The warmth of the sun on her metal felt oddly nice... it had been such a long time since she got to enjoy the sun on her "skin", even the breeze felt nice.<p>

Then her peace was interrupted once again, not by her creators, but by her hud.

Blinking, she observed the small icon curiously, she didn't recognize the glyph, and the icon didn't really make any sense to her... curious she opened the file, and was given a large list, the first item selected displayed a diagram on the side of a femme bot, likely a car from what she could tell from its frame.  
>Clicking the second item, it changed into a different model, now one of a seeker femme.<br>The list went on like that, and out of curiosity and lack of understanding of what this list was, Lyric picked a nice looking byke femme and clicked on start.  
>Then without warning, her body jerked back, as if something invisible had hit her.<br>She let out a yelp of surprise, barely managing to secure herself on the branch before her body did another violent jerk, making her slip a little on the branch.

She yelped, digging her fingers into the bark, trying to keep up with what her systems were telling her.

Cybertronian was hard enough to read, it was worst when it just scrolled by your vision without waiting.

Then her arm started to twist painfully, forcing her to let go of the branch and falling down, tumbling across many branches and leaves, until she eventually got stuck between some, her body twisting and bending in unnatural and unpleasant ways, getting further stuck in the foliage.

She was in such a panic that she didn't make out Prowl's and Jazz words, nor did she notice them climbing up with rapt speed until they were actually somewhere around her, according to her messed up sensors.

"Shh! Shh! Calm down Lyric" Jazz tried futility, trying to find the young femme's head. "Slag... she's pretty tangled there... her head started shiftin' inwards already" He told Prowl, who was trying to analyze how to best get his creation out of this mess.

"Her doorwings are halfway through, one is jammed between those branches" He noted, testing one of the stuck legs, it wiggled slightly. "I think I am able to unpin her from above, but you will have to secure her while I reach some of the areas, so that she does not pull her limbs" he instructed.

"Hear that sweetspark? Dun move. We're gonna get ya outta there" Jazz spoke to where he guessed the head had shifted into. He heard a small voice from in there in reply.  
>"Okay, I got 'er." He told Prowl, shifting to the tree limbs underneath the young femme and holding her by her torso.<p>

Prowl nodded and moved forwards to free the doorwings first, once they were, they fluttered, relieved to be free. He gave them a small pat before moving to the legs.

"Gotta say... worst place ta have yer first transformation sparkles" Jazz commented as the weight from the first leg came down and he put more strength into holding her.

"First transformations by themselves tend to be complicated as it is without the need of extra challenges" Prowl agreed, struggling with freeing the second leg.

Then without much warning the branch the leg was stuck in broke, making the rest of her fall. There was a sickening crack just before a scream broke out.

"Slag! Prowl! The arm!" Jazz shouted, trying his best to push his creation back up and loosen the stretch on her one remaining limb still stuck in a branch.

Prowl moved quickly to release the arm, his optics narrowing as he saw sparks coming out from the shoulder. He carefully moved it, flinching when Lyric let out a mixture of a whimper with a scream of pain.

"Its dislocated" He told Jazz, moving to join him at a better height, making sure to move the injured arm as much as possible.

"Frag...its okay Lyric, jus' hold on. Prowler an' Ah are bringin' ya down. We'll call Ratchet."

"Already did" Prowl informed promptly, as they started to descend.

With how slowly and carefully they came down, it was no surprise that Ratchet had already arrived, escorted by the twins for extra help, should he need someone to be carried, or should there have been any attacks... for once Prowl hadn't exactly been very descriptive of the situation.

"Now whats all this about?" The medic said as they finally reached the ground with the messed up body.

"Yikes... that looks painful" Sideswipe commented with a cringe.

"A bad first transformation" Prowl explained " Combined with falling down from this three, one of her shoulders is dislocated it seems."

"Set her down" Ratchet instructed, helping them do so for the femme's lesser pain.

He examined the problem for a few moments, figuring out how to best approach it.

"We're going to have to force her to change back to bipedal mode, I won't dare to fix the arm until that's done."

The twins hissed at the mere idea. Forced transformation was NOT a pleasant experience... soldiers had to experience every once in a while due to battle damage. Sometimes you were just unlucky enough to get hit mid transformation.

"Hear that sparkles?" Jazz spoke to the misshaped mass, petting what he thought was her back.

"Yer gonna be fine."

"All right, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, grab a leg each." Ratchet instructed. "Jazz, you hold the injured arm, I want you to make sure it wont be hurt any further or ripped off. Prowl help me grab her around the torso."

They moved to their places, and then not giving the girl any warning started to pull, forcing her leg gears to move unwillingly back into their natural position, a part of her torso felt like it had changed as well.

Startled by the uncomfortable pain Lyric let out a scream, trying desperately to bear it.

"Okay, good" Ratchet noted, nodding for the twins to let go of the legs, which promptly fell limp. The femme's engine was struggling and sputtering with the strain it was under. "Now, hold her stead Prowl, I'm going to work on this arm" He said, moving around the armor and searching for the right spots to make the arm shift.

Again the pain was uncomfortable, and it kept being so as they passed on from body part to body part until they were finally done, the girl practically limp in Prowl's arms, panting with effort.

"Lets see that arm now" Ratchet said, shooing Jazz out of the way and moving in, poking and prodding. "hmmm... This isn't just dislocated..." he muttered, frowning as he brightened his optics a notch to see better inside the joint. "Its broken, I'm going to have to fix her back at the medbay." he informed.

"Very well." Prowl said, moving to pick up his child, bridal style, being mindful of the arm which Ratchet made lie on her abdominal plating. "At the very least, it was a mercy that it was not one of her doorwings" He commented, as the group made to leave, Ratchet Prowl and Jazz at the front, the twins at the back.

"I second that" Ratchet commented, keeping tabs on the disoriented child.

Behind them, the twins watched with some form of pity.

"Reminds me of that time..."

"DON'T even go there" Sunstreaker growled, knowing exactly what his brother was thinking.

"What, you got to admit, we were lucky we didn't get anything broken... our first transformations were totally messed up."

Sunstreaker rolled his optics "I'm just glad I wasn't transformed into you permanently."

Sidedswipe snickered "Yeah, we'd be a gestalt if we did."

The resounding clang of Sunstreaker's hand whacking his brother on the back of the head was the last thing Lyric heard before the drain from the pain took over and set her into an unsettled recharge.


	29. A creator

Hey everyboddy!Sorry for the long wait! But life has been very busy for me lately, and I have only managed to do this by bits so far.

Hope you enjoy this one! Things are starting to get serious.

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><p>Slowly Lyric began to boot, her systems as usual, flooding her vision with a report of her status, but the first thing she actually took in was the soft petting of a servo on her helmet, brushing her chevron lightly, giving her soothing sensations and safety.<p>

Taking her time, knowing she was safe and alive, she booted fully, onlining her optics and visor, only to be met with the orange ceiling of the ark.

Predictably Jazz's face hurried into her vision, he was saying something, but it was still fuzzy to her, her systems were still adjusting her audio capacity.

Jazz grabbed her face, kissing her on the cheeks, on the nose, on the forehead, and on the chevron, clearly showing his worry.

The sound focused more and she could now make words better.

"...confuse her." Prowl's voice came while Jazz pet her helm like it was about to break. "and be mindful of her shoulder, Ratchet said not to move it much."

"Ah know..." Jazz whined, rubbing his cheekplates against Lyric's "but Ah can't help it, Ah need ta know mah lil' girl is okay."

"M'fine..." she managed to mumble, feeling oddly tired.

"Yer not fine" Jazz said, sounding a bit more strict now that she had responded. "Yer shoulder joint got broken, yer lucky Ratchet had the part he needed ta replace it."

"My shoulder broke...?" she asked drowsily, making to look to both her shoulders.

"It is fully repaired now" Prowl spoke, coming more into vision as she turned her head towards his way. He was sitting in a chair with a datapad, it looked like they had been there for a while. "Although you are to take it easy and avoiding moving it too much, while you get used to the new part."

She nodded lightly. Working on refocusing her sensors, soon she felt the faint sting from her shoulder.  
>"You have a terrible timming." Prowl continued calmly. "Your transformation systems came online at the worst location. It was incredibly dangerous."<p>

"You...knew this was going to happen?" she asked dazedly.

"Yeh..." Jazz answered this time, having resumed to simply stroking her helm in comforting caresses. "We knew it woulda come up sooner or later, we jus' didn' know when."

"So...what did I turn into...?" she asked curiously, looking between the two as they exchanged uncertain glances.

"We do not know as of yet, your frame couldn't finish the full transformation due to you falling and getting caught on tree limbs. You will have to execute the transformation on your own next time."

That didn't sound very right... "On my own?" she repeated.

"We'll be there with ya all the way sparkles. Ya dun gotta worry none." Jazz assured readily.

"No I mean- was this supposed to have happened automatically? As in, with no warning?"

"Yes, that is essentially how all first transformations work, after the first experience you will have a menu available for you." Prowl agreed.

"But... I got that menu from the beginning." she said, blinking. The two looked taken aback for a moment, and uncertain.

"Maybe its a program glitch?" Jazz suggested.

"Lyric... what did the program look like, and what did you activate exactly?" Prowl asked, looking tense as he thought.

"Uhh..." her mind was still foggy, she tried her best to remember it. "Well I couldn't translate the glyph... so I pressed it out of curiosity-" she felt like shrinking at the way Prowl's lips spread thinly. "and it gave me this menu. It had a lot of various frames for femmes, some of even mechs. It gave me the schematics of both bipedal mode and vehicle mode. I figured it was some sort of information list or something, so I picked one, I thought I was just opening a file but... next thing I knew I started feeling weird and started changing."

The two adults stood still, taking in what she said.  
>"Ratchet...?" Prowl slowly called, bringing his mate to sit back down on the empty chair beside him, Jazz looked on in absolute shock at his creation, it looked as if he was about to have one of Prowl's crashes.<p>

"What? Whats wrong? What did I do?!" she asked, making to sit up with some effort, taking note of the growing panic in the air.

"Ratchet!" Prowl called again, this time more urgently, ignoring his creation's questions for now.  
>"WHAT?!" the medic shouted from what Lyric realized now, was the private room they were in, he strode in through the door, a scowl on his face as he took in the scene. "What the frag is going on? You, lie back down" he ordered, pointing at Lyric, who all but ignored the order.<p>

"We require that you make an extensive software scan to Lyric immediately." Prowl said with some urgency, holding his mate steady on the chair.

Jazz was mumbling something in cybertronian, just one word, but Lyric didn't know this one.

"Why?" The medic asked suspiciously, but moving to his scanners none the less.

Prowl gave Lyric a glance, uncertain, before turning back to Ratchet and speaking in cybertronian.

Lyric could only catch a thing or two again, but she knew they were obviously talking about her, and it was starting to worry her.

"What? Whats wrong?" She asked, sitting straighter in the berth, much against Ratchet's will. "Did I do something wrong? Should I not have pressed it?"

"Get her to lie down Prowl" Ratchet ordered calmly, setting up his machine.  
>Prowl easily moved back to the berth, reaching to push the femme back down, only to have his hands pushed away.<p>

"No! Whats going on! Tell me!" she didn't like this, she didn't like being forced down for some medic exam.

"Its all right Lyric, it is probably nothing serious, but Ratchet NEEDS to make sure, if our guess is right. Please lie down." Prowl tried, noting the rising aggravation in his creation.

"Not until you tell me whats going on!"

"It is easier to explain once we are certain. We could be wrong." He said, managing to push her down now that she wasn't so resistant. "Everything will be fine, you have my word, trust me."

"Certain of what?!" she squeaked as Ratchet prepared to plug her to the machine, she inched away from him wearily. "Whats wrong with me?!"

"_Nothing_ is wrong" Prowl insisted, opening the link from his to her spark, trying to invest on sending her calm and comfort.

"No! Don't you nothing me!"she said a little bit on the verge of hysterics "You can't just do this and tell me its nothing! GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!" she snarled at Ratchet when he got too close with the cable, her engine hissing. "And don't do THAT either!" she yelled at Prowl "don't you try to influence me with those feelings! I am NOT going to calm down!"

"Prowl!" Ratchet barked, annoyed.

"Lyric you have to trust me" Prowl said in a bit more of a hurry now, knowing Ratchet's temper was running thin.

"Trust you?! You're hiding something from me and you want ME to trust YOU?!"

"Yes!" Prowl's momentary loss of control over his emotions stopped her in her tracks, just one word, and he'd said a lot. He calmed, letting out an ex vent. " Please..."

Ever so slowly, she relaxed a little from her tense position, relaxing a little, looking at Ratchet suspiciously.

"Thank you" Prowl said with relief flooding their bond, reaching to pet his daughter's helmet while her optics were fixated on what Ratchet was doing. She moved away ever so slightly when he tried to plug her in again, and then did not resist the second time.

He felt the little jump she gave when the system began scanning her processor, it wasn't particularly painful, just a little startling.

Ratchet hummed, reading the information scrolling across the screen, searching for any anomalies.  
>After long tense minutes in which only Prowl had moved to comfort his tense creation, reassuring her that everything was fine, Ratchet finally spoke up.<p>

"There it is." he said, narrowing his optics and frowning, squinting at the screen.

Both Prowl and Jazz, who had been in his own state of shock until then, looked up at the medic, expecting to hear the news. Lyric was highly alert, listening in as best as she could, pulling up every file she had to understand anything that might be spoken in cybertronian.

"Is she...?" Jazz spoke up with a voice that didn't even sound like his own.

"Yes." Ratchet said with most certainty. "It would seem she inherited your bit of nasty coding and it just finally activated. We were lucky it didn't while she was under cover really, would have been very troublesome."

"What nasty coding?" she piped up, her voice going a bit higher in pitch with her worry "what are you talking about? Whats wrong with me?" her fans were starting to hum online, attempting to cool her down.

Prowl seemed to snap out of his own state of mind by her voice and returned his attentions back to her, trying to keep her calm and still.

"Nothing is wrong dearspark." he said gently, sensing the fear radiate off of her in waves. "You...ah...I'm afraid it does not have quite a translation in english" he frowned in thought "what you have, is a skill, a trait if you will, a rare talent that does not get passed on easily, something that you seem to have gotten from your carrier, the only one in the autobots known to have it." he explained as Ratchet moved to unplug her, she quickly inched away from him.

"What trait? What are you talking about?" she was confused, oh so confused, why did they like to omit things so much? She wanted to end all the suspense and just have them say it!

"It would seem that earlier, you have not triggered your transformation as we had thought you did." he began. "instead you initialized this skill by accident. You see... you are a-"

"_-Sorceller_"Jazz spoke up before him, in full cybertronian, and Lyric could not translate what he said, but he said with a firmness that she knew was what prowl had been about to say.

"what?"

"Ah...it is the name we have for it. Its a special type of transformation, instead of taking an alternative mode for moving around like the most of us, you are able to completely change your appearance, in both modes, it is a much higher level of shape shifting than we are normally capable of."

"What...?" she was still disorientated from it all, trying to make sense of things, getting to know cybertronian culture was hard enough... this was even worse.

Prowl turned to his mate, looking thoughtful "it would probably be best explained by giving her an example, do you have sufficient energy?"

Jazz simply nodded, stepping up next to the berth.

"Look carefully girly, cuz we can't do this too many times" he told her, raising an arm for her to look at. Lyric did so, expecting him to do something with it, but then instead, something started to happen to it.

Lyric watched in fascination as the arm began twisting and shifting into a completely different arm, the white and black paint fading and gaining a new color of blue and yellow, and while the arm looked like the proper mass for the rest of Jazz's body, it looked like it did not belong to his body at all anymore, as if he were wearing someone else's arm.

He gave her time to look at it, even offering it for her to have a closer inspection. His previously serious expression softened a little as she took it in, tracing the armor, trying very hard to understand how it had worked.

"Its still part o'meh... jus' disguised" he chuckled, lightly wiggling his fingers as she touched his hand.

"Its like your a shapeshifter for cybertronians...by your standards anyway...how does..." her processor didn't want to take it in "how did you even change the paint?"

"Ah didn't." he said calmly "righ' now its still black an' white, but ah'm coverin' it with some holo paint, if Ah were to go on a long term infiltration mission though I woulda gotten a real paint, less energy drainin'."

"And you're telling me that I...I can do this...?" she lifted his arm a little, looking it over one last time before releasing it. "I can change into anything I like? Anyone?"

"Ah... no. It dun' work that way. Ya can't copy someone's look for example unless ya have every frame specifics from 'em. Normally we make our own models. Or use the most common ones. It takes a real high level o' control ta be able ta copy someone's look jus' right."

And it was implied in his tone that he was one of those select few that knew how.

"More so to the point" Prowl interrupted as Jazz shifted his arm back to what it was supposed to look like. "Sorcelling is a dangerous skill, more so to the user than to those one hopes to elude."

"It has risks?" She asked, almost knowing the answer. Of course it had to have, nothing good ever came without a price.

"Yes, sorcelling is an extreme energy consuming skill." he explained "a simple transformation alone can set one on its reserves." He glanced at Jazz as if wanting him to confirm it.

The saboteur was flexing his fingers, making sure his arm was fully back to normal, he nodded at Prowl's request.

"Not only tha'. But if ya dun' know how ta do it righ' ya can easily break a limb or crush somethin' vital from yer body. Yer lucky ya only got yer shoulder joint broken this time."

"So...what do I do with it...?" She asked uncertainly, feeling for her recovering arm in a subconscious reflex.

"Ya leave it alone." Jazz said firmly, his face reminiscent of the one he wore the last time they had a Decepticon attack, before he got injured. "Yer never EVER ta use it, understand? Its dangerous."

"But you-"

"No." He cut her off firmly. "We're not gonna argue this. Yer NEVER ta use it."

"WHY not?"She countered, feeling a bit of her rebelling fire burning. "I get it has risks and all! I understand that, but once I learn how to do it right it should be fine! You could teach me!"

"No." Jazz repeated. "This is not up for discussion Lyric. Yer forbidden from usin' it, an' Primus help meh if ah catchya fiddlin' with that program!" he warned.

"What are you going to do?! Ground me?!" she barked back, gritting her denta angrily, she did not like the authorative tone he was using on her. "You're not the boss of me, you can't order me around!"

"As a matter o'fact Ah can!" He huffed "Ah'm your carrier an' Ah'm tellin' ya righ' now where the line lies, an yer jus' a few steps from crossin' it missy." he said raising his own voice.

"I think that is enough for today..." Prowl input trying to get in between them, sensing their respective angers rising.

"You might have created me! But you're certainly not my father!"

The words punched the air like a bullet, freezing the two mechs and even the medic who had wandered away to give them some space.

Lyric hesitated for a moment when the silence hit her, realizing her words, for a moment she felt like taking it back, but then everything they had just talked about came back, and it just fueled her anger further.

"Y-you heard me! Just because you created me doesn't make you my father! A father doesn't abandon its child! They don't give their children away to another species to top it off! A father wouldn't bring their own child to life in a time of war! What were you even thinking at that time?! What future could you possibly have hoped for me?! Was I just to be a pet you could take comfort from when you needed?! Because THAT is not what being a parent is about! And that's all you ever do!"

Prowl was now looking at her with shock, his optics pale and unnaturally wide, Jazz wasn't even looking at her, his head low and his visor had gone dark.

"L-Lyric..." Prowl spoke faintly.

"Did you EVEN consider my feelings in all of this?! Or just my health?! You have NEVER asked me how I felt about this change, you never asked me if I wanted it! If I would rather take other actions! Maybe I would have wanted that memory wipe you're going to offer Windy! Maybe I would have rather died! Or maybe I would have even preferred to be with the Decepticons! The fact is you didn't even bother to ask!"

"Lyric... please do not say such things" Prowl spoke softly, reaching to touch her, only to have her move away.

"No! Its the truth and you know it! You didn't even care to ask how I was doing after I got captured!" she tried her best to hold the knot in her throat, to not cry, but her voice was starting to crack. "You never bothered to ask if they had done anything to me! If I was coping well from it! You just put me in my room and let me sleep it off! Pretended that nothing happened! All the while keeping me here as much of a prisoner as I would have been with them!"

Prowl retracted his hand, looking hurt from her words, his optics paled even more as he looked down, and then at his mate, making to move. "Come... I believe its time we leave." he murmured to his mate, dragging the only half there mech out.  
>Lyric watched them leave, they didn't even look back before walking out the door of the private room...a moment later she heard Ratchet sigh, and make his way out as well, the door closing and leaving her to the silence of the room.<p>

It was crushing, the sudden lack of noise...and it made her realize how hurtful she must have sounded...instant regret came now that they were gone, and she curled into a sitting position, hugging her knees and tucking her head between them, letting out a quiet sob.

What had she done?

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><p>Hope you guys enjoyed that, I will be moving on with the other ocs soon on the next chapters, so dont worry, they are not forgotten :3<p>

also I hope I get some reviews from you guys this time around? I have no idea how well the story is doing for you guys and I would like opinions on where you would like this to turn.

Thanks! And cya next chapter!


	30. A fair trade

Thank you for those who reviewed! It has helped me greatly! Here is the next chapter! Some things from past chapters show up again! 8D it all makes sense nowwww!

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><p>She spent the night in the medbay. The next morning, Ratchet released her but no one came to pick her up, eventually she got the hint and went on by herself.<p>

It was strange, and it didn't feel right. The few Autobots she knew greeted her when she passed by, they had been slowly getting used to seeing her around, still they have her odd looks upon finding her alone.

Finally, she saw a face she knew would not leave her alone.

"Lyric! Good morning! How are you feeling? Better? I heard about yesterday and I was really worried, but Prowl told me you were going to be fine and not to worry. What are you doing here by yourself anyway? Are you heading for the rec room to refuel as well?"

"I...uh..." she took a moment to let everything Bluestreak said sink in, blinking a moment before formulating her answer. "yes... yeah I guess I am... I could use with some fuel...and the company" she admitted.

"That's great!" he said cheerfully, stepping to her side to walk at the same rhythm. "So, have you heard? The news I mean? The humans really did it this time, and of course Megatron was just expected, I'm sure the higher ups were afraid he'd pull something like this sooner or later."

"Huh? What? What are you talking about? What was on the news?"

"Oh so you didn't see it!" he said, more than glad to fill her in " Well last night, Megatron made a broadcast on human tv, claiming to have one of the creation's false parents as hostage, and that if we were to not give her up, he would torture and kill them. Old trick really, and they're probably on his side pretending not to be anyway."

"Which creation are we talking about?" She asked wearily, fearing for the answer. None of them would have been a good one anyway, some of them had not had the best of parents, but they had not been extremely abusive or anything of the sort, as far as she knew anyway.

"Ah...Shell's."

"Shell?"

"Umm... I believe her name was Gabriella? Yeah I think so."

Lyric hissed, biting her bottom lip plate. Yeah this was the worst case scenario, it just had to be that one.

"Then they might not be pretending... I don't know..."

"You think Megatron might actually have hostages then?" Bluestreak asked curiously.

"Maybe, I can't be certain. I mean she really loves that family, it IS her family, even if not by...uh... energon...you know what I mean! Anyway, I do think that they actually did care for her on a child/parent relationship."

"Hmm... that would be very troublesome. We are still going to act upon it I'm sure, because you know.. its part of our code, we protect the innocent and weak."

"Right...does she...?"

"Know...? No. I think they were discussing on how to break the news to her."

"Well we're going to know the second that happens then" she said wearily as they entered the room and headed for the dispenser.

"So how are you doing with Prowl and Jazz?" Bluestreak asked without losing a beat. "your walk out yesterday go well? Besides you know, the falling. I heard you had your first transformation! Congratulations by the way."

"Oh...um... sort of... I don't really wanna talk about it...it didn't go too good. I think they're kind of hurt by something I said."

"Hm? Takes a lot to hurt those two, it would have to have been something very bad" he noted as they headed for a table, Lyric lowering her head in shame, looking guilty.

"Yeah well... I can be a little cruel sometimes...especially if I lose my temper."

"So you let lose some steam" he said lazily "I'm sure they will get over it quick and come running to squeeze you in a hug in no time."

"I don't know... they didn't come to pick me up this morning... what if I stepped too far?" she asked uncertainly, looking at her cube but not quite able to bring herself to drink it yet, too focused on the matter.

"There is never stepping too far with them, not unless you suddenly decided to join the Decepticons I think, and even then...

Well in any case, I'm sure it will sort itself out in no time, you'll see." He smiled brightly at her, patting her atop the helm.

For the next hour they took their energon, with mostly Lyric listening to her uncle rambling non stop like usual, she didn't mind, he clearly needed to talk to people. And considering how mean she had been to her creators the previous night, she just didn't have the spark to mistreat Bluestreak.

Eventually he had to go for his own shift, and saying good bye, he left her alone in the rec room. Everyone else had already left for their own shifts, so Lyric had the entire room for herself.

She didn't stay, it was too eery to stand alone in a room that was usually busy with bots. Or at least, whenever Jazz and Prowl had brought her here, it had been.

Instead she roamed the halls a little bit, until deciding to head for the communications central. If there was anyone who could know what was going on, it would be Blaster. Hopefully the mech would be cooperative and give her some information on why no one had shown up to pick her up.

Upon arriving to her destination however, she was met with a very frazzled tape deck, moving back and forth from his monitors and systems, on the big screen was an incoming call message in cybertronian, and the name "Megatron" in it.

"Slag, slag, slag, slag!" He muttered in his own language, dashing from board to board. "Must be in..." something something "can't contact..." something something.

He was grumbling so bad she couldn't make it out, it was bad enough with the accent.

"Um...? Blaster?" the mech nearly jumped at the sound of her voice, whirling around with a shock stricken face.

"Lyric! What're ya doin' ere girl?!" he tried in vain to cover the big screen with his body.

"I was going to ask you something... but I guess you're busy..." she said hesitantly.

"Ya, ya could say tha'" he said, his optics darting back and forth between her and the screen behind him.

"Okay, I won't bother you then, I just wanted to ask if you knew about Jazz or Prowl... they haven't come to pick me up earlier today..."

His optics widened like saucers, the mech seeming to fall into some sort of realization.

"Slag..." he whined "Um... don't tell 'em I said tha'" he added quickly to her. "You stay put, Ah think ah know where they are, Ah need ta get'em ASAP, DON'T TOUCH ANYTHIN'" he warned, dashing out the door without another thought.

She stared at the door in silence for a moment, before looking at the monitors "that's just begging me to..." she moved off to the desk, sitting down on the chair, waiting.

The obvious call still on wait drew her attention once more, she realized a bit belatedly, that this was likely to do with Windy's family... Megatron was likely making his demands.

Windy's family... unlike herself, Windy had a lot to lose, she loved her family, and her family loved her back, the proof of this was in Megatron using them as bait.

It was said for her true creators, but it had been their choice, and this was the prejudice. She couldn't see how her friend would be able to survive if her parents were executed once the Autobots refused to give in to their demands.

She felt horrible for her friend, felt guilty even. Here she was, managing to move on, actually being better off now with her new 'parents'...despite what she had said the day before.

She knew what she said was true, but it was also true that they had been trying very hard to adjust, and had taken many risks for her.

In a way what she had said had been horrible and cruel, and completely unnecessary.

And this morning proved it, they hadn't come like they always did, they just left her alone, to fend for herself. It was always like this, it had always been, even before with her human parents.

But at that time, as a human, she could do many other things, have many escapes...here...not really.

There was no where to go, nothing to do that would help her avoid conflict between them.

She didn't want that kind of life, she didn't want to continue on avoiding them and feeling guilty, but she knew there was no way back.

Glancing up once more, she read the cybertronian letters out loud, slowly at first.

Making up her mind, she got up, and turned to the controls, initiating the call.

After a few kliks, the call was picked up, and the video screen of a dark room came into view, Megatron's barely seen silhouette looming menacingly in his throne.

"You seem surprised." She spoke first, trying her best to speak their language.

"I was not expecting the Autobots, much less Optimus to allow one of your kind to speak to myself I admit" he said calmly, his voice husked like dark fog.

"You're calling about your hostages." she said, cutting straight to business, not wanting to get lost in the foreign language. "present them, as proof of your end of the deal."

A low chuckle made it feel like the entire room trembled in fear, Megatron looked on amused.

"Demanding little thing... Starscream! Bring them forwards."

Grumbling, the second in command did so, holding out a cage, where a family of humans was crammed in,barely having any space between them. They looked like they had seen better days.

Her expression must have shown her worry, for Megatron was quick to speak.

"They are in good health, if a little dirty." He chuckled once more.

"I agree to hand myself in, in exchange for their safety."

"So ready? Hmmm... Do you think myself a fool?"

"The Autobots are not aware that I am speaking to you right now, they're busy with something else. This is just between the two of us." she explained, trying to remain a calm appearance.

"Is that so? What proof do you have of this?"

"I don't, but honestly what do YOU have to lose with it? You're on the winning side right now."

"And you chose to join the winning side?" He said in interest.

"No. I agree to give myself in, but, I have two demands in exchange." Megatron let out a hearty laugh, as if he thought she was being preposterous. "One, you will return the family to the Autobots safely, they will come through the ground bridge safely to them. I will be wearing explosives on me, should you try to trick me. I can easily just kill myself if I'm going to hand myself over." The cons watched on in silence. "Two, when handing myself over, I want you to erase my memories. All of it."

There was a long moment of silence, in which she grew impatient, very impatient.

"I don't have a lot of time. Do you agree?"

Another moment of silence, where her only focus were Megatron's crimson optics, burning like fire, and his looking back at hers, making her feel glad she had a visor.

"Agreed." he said at last.

"Good, we meet at these coordinates." she said, typing them down in a hurry. Really they were made up, but who cared? Any location other than the ark would do.

"Very well, when will you make your...escape?" He asked, optics narrowing.

"In a few moments, the Autobots will arrive to pick up this call, pretend that we did not have this conversation, buy me enough time to set up the ground bridge. Send one of your own to hand over my family and to pick me up in turn." It was a long shot, but pretending to pass as Windy would only further their belief that she would keep her word. She was assuming that since none of them had seen her cybertronian form as of yet – well none that hadn't died anyway – then they would believe her.

"Very well femme, do not make me wait, I grow impatient quickly" He said before terminating the call.

Lyric let out an exhale she didn't know she had been keeping.

After a klik or two, she turned back to the console and fiddled with the controls again, turning on communications to the mechs guarding their ground bridge outside.

"Hello, this is Lyric speaking, I'm helping Blaster out with some of his calls." she said trying to sound more cheerful than she felt. "I have the great news for you two! Your shifts are ending a bit early, Prowl has once again found the need of extra shifts for the twins so they will be taking your posts soon, enjoy the rest of the shift off." she terminated the call, hoping that would do the trick. Megatron's call soon came on the screen again, and she knew her time was counted, she dashed out, set to getting back to their quarters. She knew where Prowl's old equipment was, more than likely the grenades didn't work anymore, but the cons didn't have to know that...

Gathering up what she needed, she made herself look rigged up, and dashed for the crushed area of the ship she had found the first time she slipped out.

Making sure not to be spotted, she made to the ground bridge, and turned on the controls, quickly trying to figure out the software and inputting the right coordinates, she got a remote control to deactivate it from the other side when she ordered it to.

This would have to do.

The fluctuating green energy started to form, filling the frame of the portal with light.

She looked back at the Ark, took a deep breath, and went through it.


	31. Exchange

Lyric slowly stepped out of the ground bridge, looking around wearily, across from it, there was another ground bridge, a very familiar mech coming through from it, Soundwave.

The area turned out to be in a forest, near a highway from the looks of it. It was thick enough there to make it hard for larger cybertronians to walk in, but good enough for someone her size and build.

In his hand, he held a crickety cage, full of small humans, looking terrified and exhausted, dirty and barely fed. She tried to hold back any emotion from showing in her face, though she had no doubt that it must have shown in her doorwings. She held up the granade to make sure they had a deal.

Soundwave gave a silent nod.

"Put them down and open the cage. I will let go of the explosives once they cross through the ground bridge." she ordered calmly, or at least as much as she could manage, her hand was shaking, clenched around the grenade.

Soundwave leaned down, setting down the cage and opening the door. In an instant the humans ran out and over to her feet, most of them hugging her feet and sobbing cries of love and relief at seeing 'their' daughter. It broke her a little inside knowing they accepted her friend even if she were in a body like hers.

"Go through the bridge. The autobots will be on the other side. You will be safe." she said, leaning down to look them closer in the eye.

"We are NOT leaving you with those things Gabriella!" The father spoke outraged, giving her a scolding look.

"Good, because you aren't." She said in a low voice. She knew that Soundwave would hear even if she whispered anything. "Trust me, Gabriella will be with you on the other side before you know it." she stood back up, lifting her foot to be rid of their hold.

"Go now. There's not much time."

The man was looking up at her with widened eyes, realization seeming to dawn upon him.

His wife and children didn't seem to get it, but he was quick to gather order in his family, and began to drag them away to the ground bridge, literally in the case of his wife who kept screaming for her girl.

Once the last one had gone through, Lyric deactivated the ground bridge via the signal, and quickly erased it from memory. There would be nothing for Soundwave to track, she was already deleting all the important information from her memory banks. Everything that she could delete herself was being deleted.

"Soundwave, accomplished his part of the deal." Soundwave spoke, motioning for her to do the same.

With a deep intake, she set down the grenades on the floor, careful not to set them off.

"Very well..." Narrowing her optics, she then pulled the ring on one of the grenades and threw it at the mech. Grabbing the second she didn't even wait before turning around and dashing for cover, jumping for it just as it had exploded.

Once her feet felt stabilized she ran for it, using the trees to gain space and speed from him.

"Well at least the grenades work" she muttered to herself, taking twists and turns, trying her best to tread lightly while running, so as to not leave tracks, but it was kind of a worthless effort. She was too big not to leave any.

In the distance she could hear the sound of a bird, and the growl of a feline. Soundwaves cassettes were out on the hunt now. It was a game of time.

Eventually she stopped to catch her breath, scrolling through her many menus of systems and software until she found the one she needed.

She hesitated a moment, before pressing on the file of a small minibot, red of color, a relatively lame car for alt mode. Economic, easy to find on the road.

This time she was ready for it as her parts started shifting, her body twisting and turning unpleasantly, her paint fading from the black and orange to fully red.

Now for the worst part, she couldn't quite transform yet, which was a very big problem right now, and she had no idea where she was or no way to contact the autobots. Even if she did have a way to contact them, she wouldn't risk it so close to Soundwave.

This was where she started to panic a little, she had no plan from here on out. And she had no doubt that Soundwave would soon call for reinforcements to capture her if he couldn't do it himself on his own. And once seekers joined the sky, then she really wouldn't be able to run away.

Somehow, in this short time, she just had to learn how to transform.

Trying to remember how it felt to sorcell, she tried to think of the same way to transform, but nothing was happening. There were no menus, no software, nothing she could pull up, and gut instinct wasn't working either.

Then all of a sudden, she was pounced to the floor with a viscous growl,claws digging into her back sensors painfully. Even if her doorwings were hidden away now, that area was still sensitive, and she screamed when the pain flared.

Ravage, the metal cat, was all she could think, trying to roll to throw him off to fight. However the feline was experienced, and managed to keep her down, digging its claws deeper in the sensitive metal.

It kept her in place like that until its master's shadow fell on them. Lyric looked back, horrified.

In a last desperate moment of fear, she pulled out the last grenade, but the Decepticon was quicker this time, grabbing at her wrist and forcing it out of her hand. He looked it over for a moment, and then back at her, his face was hard to read, but he was clearly connecting the dots... it was after all the same grenade type.

He leaned forwards, storing the grenade away, and rested his hands, one of each side of her head.

The sensation was that of a sudden cold filling her mind, like everything had suddenly frozen over.

There was a presence in there, invading her mind.

She wanted to scream, she tried to scream, but she had no idea if any sound even left her vocalizer.

Soundwave went through everything, finding nothing that could help him with the war, she was thankful that her creators had been careful to keep her out of it as much as possible. Anything she had learned that could be useful to the cons she had erased, so there was nothing but herself now.

Soundwave's frustration came through clearly, and she felt like someone had flipped a switch in her mind as she started to lose trains of thought, eventually everything falling into silence.

Jazz and Prowl were freaking out by now. Blaster had led them back to the communications room just a while ago, to find that someone had picked up the call to the Decepticon Lord, spoke to him, and shut it off.

What freaked them out was that when they checked with Red Alert to review the recordings in that room in the past ten kliks the tape revealed that Lyric had been responsible for it.

Suffice to say that made them immediately attempt to contact, to no avail.

Although the young femme had been starting to learn to block them out of the bond, she was still inexperienced enough and stood no chance if they actually tried to break her barriers.

It was just that she wasn't even there...as if she was too far away to be reached.

Mind you, cybertronian bonds, even weak ones actually had a very long range. So that meant she had to be really far away.

Red Alert was quickly setting his department on the recordings to track down where the femme went to, but he didn't even get to know before one of his mechs alarmed them with even more disturbing news:

One of the ground bridges was open... and humans were coming through.

Not just any humans either! Oh no, these had to be the exact humans megatron had been wanting to negotiate.

"Hold that bridge, do not let it shut down at any costs" Prowl quickly ordered through the comm links, transforming and without excusing himself from the Prime's presence, rushed out of the room with a screech of his tires.

Jazz was quick to follow, and they could hear Prime hollering orders just as they left the hall.

Red Alert kept updating them via the comlinks, and Jazz had to curse when he told them the ground bridge had been deactivated, despite their efforts, but at least it seemed they managed to keep a record of the coordinates. All they had to do was re-open it and go through it, hopefully not straight into the decepticon base.

As they reached the ground bridge, one of their mechs was fussing around with the controls, attempting to turn it back on.

"Kid did a wireless command to the bridge, there's a chance the cons can get that signal and open it by themselves, so hurry!" he informed them.

"We'll make sure the Decepticons do not achieve that" Prowl answered quickly as they waited for the ground bridge to open, more mechs, the prime included were heading their way from the Ark. But Prowl and Jazz were not going to wait, as soon as the portal was wide enough they sped through to the other side. The swerved around each other and had a quick scan, it didn't take long to see the obvious tracks of Soundwave, whose larger body had broken tree limbs and left flattened foliage.

They both transformed and started running, following it with expert ease.

They had done many rescue missions before, some of them under a time pressure like this, but this time it was different, this time it was very much personal.

There was a sudden scream that hurried them further in their tracking, a cold and panicked feeling flooding their sparks, not from their own, but from Lyric, it was scared, and it was grabbing at anything it could.

They soon reached a bit of a clearer area only to find Soundwave standing up in front of a groundbridge, with Ravage next to him, and Lyric hanging limp from his shoulder.

He turned around and their optics met, there was a tense moment of stillness and then everyone jumped to their target.  
>Soundwave beat them to it, entering the ground bridge before they could make a grab for him. Ravage attempted to follow him, but just at the last minute Jazz managed to grab him by the tail and yanked him back against a tree.<p>

The ground bridge closed the next instant, separating them from Lyric and leaving them with Ravage instead.


	32. Reality check

Warnings: this chapter includes sexual themes, so you are here by warned.

A big thank you to: littlekunai for commenting on each chapter, and for the thewyndel and peppercornpie for their lovely comments :3

* * *

><p>The Ark had grown quiet and dark, it had been two human days, and still no word from Megatron, despite the Autobot's desperate attempts to establish contact.<p>

They hadn't been anymore lucky in terms of finding where the Decepticons were hiding, and with the humans out to get them, it was nearly impossible to investigate.

Prime was starting to fear the worse: Megatron was not interested in a trade. He knew it, but he had had hope that the Decepticon Lord would have been at least interested in hearing what the Prime had to say.

Sadly, this was not the case.

Jazz and Prowl had been taking their frustrations out on Ravage, interrogating the young cassette and trying to hack coordinates from it without much success.

Soon he would have to call them off and away from the cassette before one of them finally lost it and actually killed it.

Prime couldn't blame their frustration and anger, things had not been going too well with their creation to begin with, and for all they knew now, after all the work they had put into protecting her and raising her, she could now very much be dead, or worse, carrying.

Prime was hoping that the femme's young age would spare her from the straining phenomenon, but he knew there was little to no chance that she would be spared of the Decepticon's advances.

In a worst case scenario, they would reprogram her, which would take its time, but could still happen.

To top it off he couldn't afford to go into battle when there were four other creations they needed to protect.

He simply did not have the mech power and the knowledge needed for a rescue mission.

As he sat there in the bridge, contemplating the dark screen before him, and thinking over his choices, Prime bitterly had to admit to himself that he would soon have to give up on Lyric, for now anyway. She would either be offline or reprogrammed, which would make it that much harder to retrieve her.

He let out a heavy vent, pinching the bridge of his noseplate, considering how he should bring his thoughts to his two top commanders.

And what should he tell the other four femmes? Surely this type of information was going to hit them hard. Not only because of the reality of things, but because Lyric had been their friend, a good friend from what he'd seen and heard in the rec room.

Lyric... he pondered. What on cybertron had gone over her mind to make such a deal? Surely she knew what they wanted, she knew how they did things, her first encounter with them should have been clear enough of a message, and if it wasn't the second had been for sure.

The only reasoning he could see, and he hated to see it, even if he did admire it, was that she had done it out of caring for one of her fellow femmes. Releasing the humans back to safety, back to their adoptive child, that had been a sacrifice.

Then there had been signs of a struggle, and Prowl's missing grenades were easily explained at the entrance of where the space bridge had been, where the woods had been scorched and blown up.

Lyric was a smart femme, Prowl had deducted that she had likely planned to hold off Soundwave on her own until the Autobots realized what happened and came to help.

Only Soundwave had been too fast, and the Autobots had taken too long to realize what happened.

This still didn't explain her sudden drastic actions, something had to have pushed her over the edge to commit such a suicidal mission.

Perhaps the pressure of leaving earth had finally gotten to her, perhaps all the loss and pain had been enough.

The Prime had certainly seen this happen many times before during the war with mechs and femmes who'd lost their homes, and even when they left their planet.

He himself had felt like a part of him, had died away when they left their home.

So Sacrifice it was, many times this was a way these mechs and femmes had chosen to go, giving their lives away for a better future of others. Sacrifice was, in his opinion, a unique quality, not one he liked, but one he admired and respected.

"Prime?"

Optimus blinked his optics back to their usual brightness, and turned in his chair to see Ironhide standing there waiting for him.

"Its time" he said somberly. "humans are waitin', anymore o'that an' they'll start grippin'."

"Right..." The prime tiredly got to his pedes, standing to his full height and patting his shorter friend on the shoulder before leading the way out.  
>"What of Windy?That is what she has decided to call herself correct?" Ironhdie nodded.<p>

"She's suspicious, an' still mad at us all fer existin'." he rolled his old optics.

"I see..." Prime didn't know what to do about that anymore, they had tried everything, and he had pity for Mirage and Hound, but he also understood the child's reactions.

"And the other three?"

"They're doin' better, but they're confused as to what this is about" Ironhide continued, crossing his arms over his chassis. "The news is sure to be a shocker for 'em."

"Indeed, not to mention frighting. But if anything, Lyric will serve as a warning for them to realize how serious the situation actually is."

Ironhide nodded at this "gonna be a rough introduction."

They entered one of the meeting rooms, in it were the four remaining femmes, three still in their human bodies and one in her Cybertronian one. Their creators stood behind them as they sat on the chairs around the table, looking up at him with anxious curiosity, and in the case of one: hatred.

Prime let his gaze pass over all of them, analyzing what he could, easily reading the young faces.

He stepped forward, standing in the middle on the other side of the table. Silence spread thin with the tension, the young ones fidgeting a little in their seats.

"Well? Are you going to get on with this shit or do we have to make you hurry up?" Windy spoke up, her arms crossed and her posture laid back against the chair, everything about her spoke in the offensive.

Prime did not show any signs of being affected by her rudeness, even if her creators flinched and looked embarrassed for themselves.

"I have called you four here today, to give you some good news, and some...unfortunate ones." He let that sink in, reading their reactions, for the most part, they all got a little bit more anxious.

"I would like to start with the good ones." He said, motioning for the door "Ironhide if you please?"

The gruff soldier grunted, uncrossing his arms and going back to the door opening it.

"All righ' yeh can come in now" He announced, opening the door just enough to let through a family of humans.

Windy immediately went quiet, hostility dropping as she looked ahead, a light coming to her eyes. She was at a complete loss, uncertain, hopeful, but afraid.

Her voice went hoarse and cracked when she tried to talk, the effort causing her eyes to well up with tears." Daddy...? Mommy...? "

A hand came from behind her, offering her the perch she needed to reach the floor so that she could meet with her family.

Mirage was the one to do so, a bitter smile on his face as he watched her hop off his hand and run off to her family.

Instead of words, all she did was start to cry, whining and whimpering as she clung tightly to her father and mother. Her father actually lifted her off the floor to hold her like a youngling, her siblings and mother going in for a group hug as they all continued to shed tears.

The others watched with small smiles on their faces, glad for their happiness.

Prime waited long enough for them to calm down so he could speak again.

"I am pleased to tell you that your family is now safe from Decepticon hands, and here for you as long as they are able to." He then turned to the others "this however, did not come without a grave consequence."

Windy's grip on her father tightened, feeling a stark emptiness in the pit of her stomach. An uncomfortable hot prickling on the back off her neck.

"...Why isn't Lyrica here...? " She croaked out.

The Prime's optics dimned, as he turned back to her.

"Lyric...has contacted the Decepticons behind our backs... and agreed to a trade."

"NO!" Lacey's voice was the first to rise. "She wouldn't!"

A horrible lump formed in Windy's throat, making it even harder to breath. Her tears came back once again in full force, lips pressing tightly together as her expression darkened again.

" What the hell...What the hell..." She let out shakily, voice cracking horribly between stressed breathing. " How am I supposed to feel okay now...? How the hell can I feel okay? Why can't I have my family and my friends? Why the hell does it have to be one or the other...? Why'd it have to be my best friend...?"

"Because your very best friend, could no longer stand to see you suffer." Prime responded calmly "Although I am sure her initial plan was not to get caught, we were unable to help her in time.

These events took place two days ago, and we have not gotten a response from Megatron, nor found their whereabouts as of yet." He let it sink in before he proceeded. "I would take this as a warning. Megatron will not stop until he has the four of you. And if we are to ever see Lyric again, she will likely no longer be herself."

[12:11:55 AM] Windy Ren: Windy shook quietly against her father, looking as though she wanted to say something but struggling to let it come out. Instead the room was quiet, letting others contemplate, just standing there for what seemed like the longest minutes ever. The missing femme's best friend croaked something quietly against her father, hyperventilating worse then ever before until she pulled away, taking a deep and hoarse breath.

" Then why the hell are you people just standing here with your thumbs up your asses? What the hell has this gotten you, so far? " she let out, voice uneven and weak from trying to maintain her volume. " Take a page out of their goddamn book, and start FUCKING beating their asses! "

Her father pulled her back, trying to reign in her in." Gabriella, do not-"

" This is FUCKING STUPID! ALL OF IT! MY GOD, I wish I wasn't an even bigger worthless piece of shit then you are, only able to freakin' bitch and complain because I don't know how to do anything fucking else! I swear, if I wasn't so clueless about shit, I'd have freaking nuked something already! " She said raising her voice more in outrage. " They are just going to keep fucking you over, the humans are just gonna keep fucking you over! For the love of god, do something useful with your special ops! What the hell are Mirage and Hound and Jazz doing here on base when they're supposed to be the goddamn best you fucking have?! Give the desk duty hacking job to someone else! My friend saved my entire family BY HER GODDAMN SELF! A FUCKING CIVILIAN! NOT EVEN A SOLDIER! And instead of mucking it up completely, like I would, she managed to get them out of there! She even fucking saved me when you guys were too scared and sitting on your hands while they had me in their grip! "

The prime sighed as the many mechs in the room seemed either disturbed of guilty of her words.

He knew this much, but honestly what could he do?

"We are working on it as much as we can, we have been ever since this has happened.

Jazz and Prowl are currently interrogating our only means of finding out where the Decepticons may be holding Lyric.

Other than that, we have not had any luck at finding the base nor communicating with the Decepticons. If we could have done anything by now, we would have done it."

"What about us?! Isn't there anything WE can do?" Lacey spoke up "Maybe we can get his attention!"

"Yeah! Act as a diversion or something!" DJ pipped up, only to be pushed back down to her seat by Ratchet.

"Out of the question, we can't risk any of you." he said.

The prime sighed as the many mechs in the room seemed either disturbed of guilty of her words.

He knew this much, but honestly what could he do?

"We are working on it as much as we can, we have been ever since this has happened.

Jazz and Prowl are currently interrogating our only means of finding out where the Decepticons may be holding Lyric.

Other than that, we have not had any luck at finding the base nor communicating with the Decepticons. If we could have done anything by now, we would have done it."

"What about us?! Isn't there anything WE can do?" Lacey spoke up "Maybe we can get his attention!"

"Yeah! Act as a diversion or something!" DJ pipped up, only to be pushed back down to her seat by Ratchet.

"Out of the question, we can't risk any of you." he said.

" Why not? LET THEM take another one of us. You guys can get sick, give us a fucking robot bubonic plague and have us spread a fucking epidemic! " Windy let out, throwing out her arms. " We're both girls! We'd be the only girls! If you make something that only effects you guys and not us, we'll be fine! "

"Its not that simple and not that convenient!" Ratchet barked angrily, distasteful of the idea "do you really think we wouldn't have tried that millenia ago when we had more femmes? No, it doesn't work.

If you had listened to us before you would remember, our race does NOT have a gender like the humans, theoretically we are all the same gender.

Femmes are only called as such and set aside because of a higher probability to spark."

"Not to mention that if we infected you, we would risk infecting Lyric as well, and she would likely not be in a fit state to fight off any disease." Wheeljack input.

" AN AGE RELATED DISEASE THEN! The both of us are fucking babies! Hell, I'm not even saying it has to be something lethal! Just, SOMETHING! " Windy said, despite her father whispering and jerking her to stop.

No one even tried to argue against her, the mechs knowing the pros and cons too well.

"There must be SOMETHING we can do" Lacey pleaded.

"Anything!" Shioji agreed.

"I will make sure to keep you informed of any progress we may have." Prime said, raising his hands to try and calm them down. "But I cannot allow you to put yourselves in further danger."

"What if we get our cybertronian bodies?! Will you let us help then?!" Lacey spoke up readily.

"Hardly" Ironhied said with a huff. "Even with a body yer hardly trained ta even defend yerselves, much less fight someone off."

"Not to mention that rescue missions require stealth rather than fighting skills, and very high stealth skills at that, since it is someone's life that is usually on the line." Mirage input.

"Then why aren't you there!?" Windy nearly shrieked, desperate with all the dead ends they were giving her.

"Because there is no 'there' to be at, as we've told you, we do not know where the Decepticons are located."he replied back.

A silence fell that was so heavy the young femmes felt like they could barely breathe in it. There were no answers, no loop holes, the Autobots had gone over everything.

And then Optimus received a call from Blaster.

"Prime! Megatron is making contact! He wants to speak to you sir!"

"Please patch the call to meeting room three Blaster." The prime answered, then turned to mirage and Hound "Please take the children out." the nodded, and hurried to gather the protesting girls as well as the human family.

The Prime then sent an urgent ping to Prowl and Jazz so that they could come to the call as soon as possible.

Optimus then turned to the screen as it was onlined, and waited tensely.

The picture came on, revealing Megatron lounding in his throne, with a smug look on his face, the kinda where he knew he'd won.

"Primmmeee..." he drawled lazily, waving a fancier cube of high grade at the camera as if greeting an old friend. "You've looked better." he chuckled darkly, taking a sip of his drink.

Optimus kept his expression as impassive and unreadable as possible.

"Where is Lyric Megatron?"

"Hmm? The youngling you mean? Why I have no idea what you're talking about" his malefic denta showed in a cruel smile.

"Stop playing games Megatron, we know you have her. What have you done to the child?" he demanded.

"Oh this and that, you know how it goes with femmes around here Optimus" The Decepticon Lord teased. "She's been a very good pet so far. Very obedient, observe..." he held out the glass, as if he wanted to rest it in the air.

Instantly a figure came out from the shadows, a young femme sporting very little armor, very reminescent of a pleasure bot model, wearing shackles around her wrists and a collar around her neck.

She held out a tray to catch the glass, her arms shaking with either fear or restraint.

She made to retreat back into the shadows but Megatron grabbed one of her arms, keeping her in place.

"A very interesting skill this one has, it pleases me very much" he said, sliding his clawed finger across the line of her hips. "I will enjoy this pet greatly."

"TAKE YER HANDS OFF'ER YA MONSTER!" Prime had not registered the door opening, so he barely had time to help Ironhide restraining Jazz from attacking the screen when he came in. "AH SWEAR AH'LL GUT YER SPARK FOR THIS!"

Megatron's laugh vibrated across the room.

"Do not fret Saboteur, no one has touched your child...not yet." this only seemed to increase Jazz's fury as he struggled more. To Prime's great relief, Prowl was being the complete opposite, although the icy cold glare from his optics was something that made you fear for your own spark.

"So much anger..." Megatron said, delighted with the type of attention "So much fury...you would have done greatly if you had stayed on our side agent Jazz." Megatron said, pulling the femme towards him and forcing her to sit on his lap. Her entire body was shaking, but no expression fell upon her face, even her optics remained at the same brightness.

"Megatron... if you dare touch that child in such a way the autobots will never-"

"rest until I am offline yes Prime, you've said so many times, I believe that is guaranteed by now" Megatron said with amusement "but what if it is she who touches me?"

"LIKE SHE'D EVER DO THAT!" Jazz shouted, going more still now.

Megatron turned to Lyric with a smile, petting her cheek with one of his much bigger fingers.

"What do you think pet? Get on your knees." He ordered. And to the Autobot's horror, the femme did so, kneeling in front of the great mech, between his legs.

Megatron smiled cruely, removing his cod piece and allowing his large barbed spike out, stiff and ready for attention.

"Go on my pet...you know what to do."

"NO! LYRIC! YOU DON'T HAVE TA DO THAT!" Jazz shouted desperately.

Lyric leaned forwards slowly, her body jerking as her mind tried to resist, but her body couldn't.

Megatron laughed, watching her struggle.

"Yessss... you know just where to go. Take it in, take it all in..." he said greedily.

Then all of a sudden, just as she was opening her mouth to take it in, her optics brightened, and in one quick movement, she flicked her wrist, bringing out a hidden energon blade and with one swiping movement cut straight across the base of the Lord's spike.

Energon splattered onto her face, but that was the least of her concerns.

The spike went flying to the floor and Megatron roared in pain and outrage, kicking her away from his bleeding crotch.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" He rose from his throne, clutching to his groin and looming over the small figure as she tried to crawl away from him. With one large step, he landed his heavy pede on her back, pushing down. "I'LL TEACH YOU TO DISOBEY ME!" he grabbed at her doorwings and with one sickening crunch, ripped them out.

The scream that came was so deafening that the camera itself went out, terminating the call.

"Blaster?"Prime called to their communications officer.

"Call went down, must'o been her vocalizer, doubt Megatron will call back after tha'" the mech bristled over the call "Ah got enough info though, it'll take some time, but ah think we can triangulate where the cons are located...more or less."

"Lyric might not have a lot of time, put everyone you have working on it" Prime ordered.


	33. Code of the Spark

Lyric felt tired and sore, she couldn't quite tell which piece of her was sore, but it just was.

She realized belatedly, that it was her consciousness, that she was still in some state of recharge, floating across her mind.

And yet she didn't feel alone. Her mind, usually dark and relaxing, as peaceful as space, was now riddled with many purple strings of light, webbing her in, poisoning.

Turning in the meta space of her mind, she gazed around at it, trying to understand what it was, it felt vile and sickening, as if it was making her mind rot.

She couldn't really tell where it came from, or where it went, but she knew what was where now, in a sense.

Even if she was still learning, she understood that some part of her meta, were meant for memories, others for personality traits, others for system programs...and if this thing was as spread as it looked, then all those things might have been in jeopardy.

Worried, she began to move around the emptiness that her mind seemed now.

Files had been hastily erased before she had been captured, others were damaged by Soundwave.

This however... this webbing felt different, it wasn't Soundwave...it was, something strange. Perhaps this was what a virus was like? That was her first thought anyway.

She kept following the webbing, getting closer and closer to the most important part of her being.

It began to worry her that even though the webbing had thinned, it had reached this far already... and as she approached the space that represented her spark code, she could see the representation of her own spark, swirling before her, shinning dimly in the night.

The webbing had stopped, not too far from it, but it had not touched it yet, it hadn't been tarnished.

She wasn't entirely sure why, but that gave her some form of relief. She had no idea what Soundwave could do with it, but it would certainly not be a good thing.

Touching the outside of the spark's metaphysical chamber, she listened to the beat of her own life source, feeling the little strength she still had left in her.

Two words, just two were whispered in cybertronian by the windy noises of her spark: Protect and Create.

They felt incomplete, but those two words felt important, as if they defined her existence.

The few times she had wondered into this place, she had wondered what it meant, and even when either Prowl or Jazz had linked into her processor, they never came this far, in fact, they had stayed clear of it.

It was the kind of place where it felt right to be the only one to witness...and now Soundwave was coming for it.

She looked back towards the webbing, feeling strained and choked just thinking about it, feeling the need to curl in on herself and hide within the very spark chamber before her, locking herself inside for good.

As she stared back at the tunnel of code before her however, she started to notice something...these lines, they had a coherency to them, it was not finished yet, but the more lines appeared, the more it became an image towards her perspective...then she started to recognize it. It was forming the Decepticon symbol, subtly engraved into her own mind, taking over...

"Decepticon coding" she murmured to herself.

"That assumption is correct" Soundwave's voice echoed in her mind, the lines pulsing brighter with every syllable he spoke.

"Soundwave..." she gritted her denta mentally, glaring at the building symbol. "What do you think you're doing to me?"

"Decepticon coding: reprogramming your behavioral network. Objective: to fully control your resistance into something of more use to Lord Megatron."

"To make me a compliant little slave you mean" she summarized. "then how come I'm still free in here?"

"This kind of coding: extensive, taking a lot of time to accomplish. However, nearly complete."

"And all you need now is to actually seize control over my very spark" she concluded. "What makes you think you can?"

"This conclusion: inevitable. Soundwave Superior"

"Maybe in the matters of the mind you are" she agreed "But I've got a pretty rowdy spark myself, what the mind forgets the spark does not." she pointed out.

"This opinion: Pointless, slave will obey to every command of Lord Megatron, Slave will submit."

"We'll see about that..." she mentally huffed, sitting in front of her sparkchamber. "you're not getting in."

* * *

><p>They were growing desperate, it had been three days since the Autobots had managed to triangulate more or less the location of where the call had come from, but the problem was that the area was still wide, and they had been combing the place clean for any clues or signs.<p>

Prime was getting worried, Jazz and Prowl had not returned to the Ark since, instead preferring to keep on the searches. He couldn't really stop them, they were their best bet of finding her.

If they by any chance got anywhere near Lyric's spark, they would be able to reach out and find her that way, but so far, they had had no luck.

They were getting tired and it showed in their temperament and haggard appearance, but he didn't have the spark to order them back.

He would have been in the same state, had it been his own creation. For once he was glad he did not possess one.

Still, everyone in the Autobots wasn't like family to him, they literally were his family, let coding and CNA be damned, they had been through too many things together to not be considered as such.

And his friend's creations, were like nieces to him.

So even if he did not have a child of his own, he cared for them like family, like he always did, like he did for every Autobot. And he would not rest until they set Lyric free and safe again.

This was why the Prime himself joined in the search, hoping that at least if he were to be found out, it would attract Megatron out...if he could even walk.

The prime had to admit some tiny form of pride for what the young femme had done. Much like her ancestors, she had shown that famous defiance femmes seemed to possess, as well as the cunning to pretend to be in full control of the Decepticon Lord and then prove him otherwise with a critical blow.

Jazz, although enraged, had been so proud, that he replayed the call's recording through out the Ark for others to see, moralizing them further into helping with the rescue, she was now officially considered a hero among heroes, and a true Autobot in the making.

Of course there was much more to being an Autobot than that, but the point was that they saw in her what they saw in each others.

He only wished that her actions had not landed her in deactivation, and instead in a long recovery in Hook's servos.

While the idea of the femme injured was a bad one, it also meant that the Decepticons would not dare to breed her. And besides, while the lord had no spike, he would certainly deny anyone the right to have their way with her before he did. He was quite sure of that. Lyric had bought herself some time.

Prowl drove at his side in absolute silence, he hadn't said much since the whole thing started. Only the absolute necessary. It was saddening to see his friend revert to what he had once been, and Jazz not doing much better.

He followed the police vehicle slowly through the road, it was just the two of them, they hadn't seen any cars for a while now, then all of a sudden, Prowl swerved a little and made to stop.

"What is it Prowl?" Prime asked, pulling up on the side of the road near him.

Prowl transformed, completely disregarding the fact that they should be disguised.

"I sensed something, briefly" he said, sweeping the dry lands around them thoroughly.

"Lyric?" The prime questioned, transforming as well, Prowl had already blown their cover anyway if there had been anyone.

"Perhaps, it was faint and far away, but there was certainly something."

"We'll gather our troops in this area, search it more thoroughly" Prime spoke, not as an order, he didn't need it to be. Prowl was already on it, making the needed calls, all the while his optics scanning the horizon, paranoid.

They waited for a while, taking cover behind some of the large boulders of the area.

"Any luck so far?"

"Faint things, I am attempting to reach further...with caution of course." Prowl added quickly. "She seems disorientated and faint."

"Likely still being repaired and on sedatives." the prime suggested, receiving only a nod as Prowl focused more on his task.

* * *

><p>Lyric was tired, no...tired didn't quite cut it... what was the right word? Exhaustion? Beaten up? Whichever, she wanted to rest and she wanted it soon, but Soundwave had not let up yet, sometimes he would take a break and leave her along for a while, but she didn't dare take those moments to rest.<p>

It was too risky, she didn't want to be caught off guard, so far she had been the only thing in the way of Soundwave taking completely over.

Then she felt the briefest of feelings. For a moment she thought the Decepticon was back and pushed away, but then realized it did not feel the same.

In her state she didn't quite have the energy to figure it out very well, her mind had become more and more muddled the longer Soundwave stuck around, and things were harder to understand or to remember.

She couldn't quite defend her spark code and everything else in her meta at the same time, so there had been...sacrifices.

' Ly...ric' a voice faintly spoke, she wasn't sure from where, everything had been quiet for so long, it was strange to hear a barely there voice. '...lease...wer...me...'

Her spark felt agitated, she couldn't quite remember this person, but she recognized the voice, and the feeling it gave off.

Tentatively she tried to stretch out a little bit, just to get a better feeling of that presence.

'Hello...?" her voice rang quietly in her meta, echoing into the dark.

'...re...urt?...ve...they...trea...you?'

'Whose there? I can't make out your words' she tried again, reaching further, that presence was getting stronger, more recognizable, but she was so tired...it was taking so much effort just to reach out.

Somehow the feeling of love and care managed to come through to her and give her some warmth, she wanted to give back but it was hard to even speak to it.

'Daddy...?' she called out uncertainly, it felt like someone like that, maybe...

In return she only felt more of those sensations, rewarding her for it.

She was so focused on contacting this person that when the net of lights came back on, she was startled.

Soundwave came without warning, ruthlessly attacking her when she didn't expect it. She stood in the way, trying to keep it away from the chamber, but it wasn't enough, he was pushing with all his might, and she pushed back, she was being pushed back into the chamber. Panic started to settle in, the last bit of her energy coming through in the form of adrenaline as she desperately tried to reach out for help, screaming for that presence, calling for help.

It tried to hold on, but her strength soon gave out, and Soundwave's net engulfed her, pushing her into the chamber and covering it in its tendrils, extinguishing its light.

* * *

><p>Prowl's doorwings twitched anxiously as he lost the connection, a growl escaped his engine as he searched the desert.<p>

"Prowl? Did you pin point their location?" Prime spoke up, bringing him back to reality.

"I...yes...barely, she is either weakened or her bond is becoming less recognizable." He said vaguely.

"Or both" Prime uttered Prowl's darkest thoughts. "Still, if you have a location we should start making a plan of action while we wait for the others and start our rescue.

"Our highest success plan would be to send an infiltration mech ahead of us, and then attack pretending that that would be our actual plan, acting as a diversion."

"And how likely are they to fall for that one?" Prime asked sceptically.

"About 45% chance" Prowl admitted."However, anything else would put Lyric's safety in danger as they could use her as a hostage, threatening to kill her if we persist."

"Infiltration it is..." Prime said uneasily. "I suppose you intend to send Jazz ahead on that job"

"Besides being our top infiltrator, Jazz's bond to our creation makes it possible to increase the success of this plan from 25% to the 45% previously mentioned."

"Of course..." Prime agreed.

And so they waited until the closest Autobots arrived, and the others came through a ground bridge connection.

As soon as Jazz had arrived, he had left, Prowl likely having informed him previously through their own ways, and not wanting to waste time.

Prime gathered his troops, and he lead the way, following Prowl as his guide.

* * *

><p>Jazz had snuck in successfully, and waited in a cleaning closet for the alarms to ring, signaling the others arrival.<p>

He could feel Lyric, faintly, but there. He had first tried to check the medbay, but she could not be found there, however he did notice that there were a few cons there with apparent severe bruising, certainly not done by Autobots, given that it had been a while since their last battle.

He supposed that Megatron had gone on a rampage after what had happened.

Pft, served the fragger right.

Finally, the alarms started to ring, and he listening to the movement outside of many mechs heading for the exists, circling around in a hurry.

When he deemed it safe, he stepped out, sneaking past security towards his target.

He almost didn't need the bond to guess where Lyric was. If she was not in the medbay, then there was only one other place...Soundwave.

After her last trick Megatron would have wanted to have her controlled, and Prowl had been sure that that was what the calling had been about.

The halls were blessedly empty, the roars of war raging from the outside. Jazz hurried, trying to guess the layout of this hidden base, it had taken him a while to find it, underneath the ground, disguised by some boulders.

Footsteps interrupted his train of thought, and he quickly made to hide in the shadows, waiting patiently.

Soundwave's figure passed by, continuing its way down the hall.

Waiting more than he probably needed to, Jazz made sure that Soundwave would not turn around and catch him, and hurried further ahead, stopping by what he guessed was Soundwave's quarters.

Hacking through the door was another hassle, normally this kind of thing wasn't a big deal for him, but this was Soundwave after all, all caution was never enough.

After a while, the door beeped, and slid open, he carefully inched forwards, looking around the darkened room, not daring to turn on the lights.

His visor was set into night vision and he spotted a long figure. It didn't look like Lyric, not at all.

Yet it was definitely a femme's build. She had no doorwings however, no chevron, and very little armor. It reminded him mostly of a pleasure bot than anything else.

Carefully he inched further, passing a hand in front of her lonely white optics.

He received no reaction, but even though it looked nothing like his creation, his bond was telling him otherwise.

He leaned down on one knee, touching her shoulder, gently shaking it.

"Lyric? Girly snap out'o'it" he called.

The femme's white optics blinked once, ever so slowly as she turned to face the mech.

"Master Soundwave is currently not available, please stand by until he arrives." She spoke in the most monotone of voices, and her faceplate expressed nothing.

"Slag...come on baby, ah know yer in there, can ya hear meh? Its Jazz" He said resting his hands on her cheeks, keeping their gazes connected.

"There is no such Decepticon named as 'Jazz'" she spoke "one can only assume that you are either lying or an intruder." she said, and Jazz tensed at that. He knew what was coming with that.

"Sweetspark..." his visor dinned "please dun' make meh hurt ya."he pleaded.

"Autobot signature, verified. Now calling-" but before she could finish Jazz struck the nerve cables on the back of her neck, freezing her frame in place before it went limp in his arms.

"Soundwave... ah swear one o' these days..." he muttered, pulling her up and over his shoulder, making his way to leave, only to stop when he turned to the door, which was wide open, revealing the head of communications, staring back at him with his coldoptics.


	34. We will never be appart

A big thank you to all the commenters and reviewers! and a special one to Saki-noir who wrote the lyrics to the lullaby in this chapter!

* * *

><p>"Soundwave" the name was uttered with the greatest disgust Jazz could allow for such a mech.<p>

The communications officer stared back at him, blocking the exit, looking so still you could have easily mistaken him for a statue.

"We had a deal" Jazz accused.

"Our agreement: still under effect" Soundwave spoke in his usual monocordic tone.

"No, it ain't" Jazz said with a snort "Ya broke yer side o'the deal when ya took Lyric here. Ya broke that deal when ya re-programmed 'er"

"This result: unavoidable. Autobots too careless with their creations, target: too easy to catch."

"An' the reprogrammin'?"

Soundwave didn't answer for a long time, Jazz was unsure if he was thinking or just reluctant to answer.

"Unavoidable. Lord Megatron would suspect if orders not followed. Soundwave: tried to delay the process as much as possible. Damage is not irre-"

"We had a DEAL Soundwave!" Jazz interrupted with fury, contrary to his adversary, he was showing all sorts of raging emotions "For centuries ah never touched yer cassettes more than ah should, ah even let them sneak aroun' the ark sometimes so they wouldn't fall on Megatron's bad graces. We agreed! Ah don't know if ya still remember tha' but we agreed at the begginin' of the war that we would never harm each other's creations!"

"This promise: remembered. Soundwave: grateful for the Cassette's lives."

"An yet when it came to mah creation ya didn' bother" Jazz snarled angrily. "Ya violated her processor, ya watched Megatron about ta rape 'er." he accused.

"Results would have been much more severe if interfered."

Jazz snorted, rolling his optics behind his visor "yeah righ'."

"Shockwave interested in your creation: possibility for experimentation reasons high. If Soundwave was not trusted, then your creation would have been in worse servos."

Jazz visor grew cold, Soundwave got him there. Shockwave would have been infinite times worse...for starters, they would have never been able to find her again, the mech had a way to disappear.

"Your creation's spark code: still intact, Soundwave has only covered it with a disguise code."

Jazz's grip on his creation tightened a little at that.

"Ya been to her spark code?" he nearly growled.

Soundwave gave a slow nod.

"Lyric possesses only two codes. The third could have been used for a better reprogramming, however this was not done. Soundwave suggests this be fixed before the next capture takes place."

"There ain't gonna be a next capture" Jazz growled between his denta "Now outta mah way."

Soundwave took a little longer than Jazz would have preferred but eventually stepped aside.

"An' keep yer creations outta mah turf from now on. Ah'll release Ravage this time, but there won't be a next. Ah hope we're clear."

"Understood" was all Soundwave answered.

* * *

><p>Prowl waited outside with the others, trying his best to lead the battle's strategy while fighting his own enemies and not be distracted by his worries.<p>

In his spark, the echoes of Lyric's desperate pleas for help still echoed, his entire being screaming to run and protect her like a Sire should.

He had to squash down that primitive instinct however and focus on the task at hand. Leading this army, making sure everyone was safe and doing their jobs was his own way of protecting his creation.

Even if not directly, he was making it easier for Jazz to sneak out of the base whenever he was ready and to return safely to the back of the battlefield where they could ground bridge back home.

"Prowl" Mirage came through the commlinks "Jazz has come out with the target, I repeat, he has come out with the target. Mobilizing now under cover. He will be joining the battle while I secure it through the ground bridge."

"Message received Mirage, advance with caution." He replied, optics scanning the battle field for his mate.

Jazz was at the very bottom of the field, already tearing through the masses of Decepticons in a savage display of barely contained anger.

Prowl wished he could join him, he was a good fighter yes, but Prowl's damage was worth a lot more from his position than from anywhere within the field.

The battle took hours, Mirage had eventually managed to sneak back through their ground bridge with Lyric and they hadn't heard from them since.

Now that both sides were finally retreating, they left behind a scorched land, eradicated by their battle alone.

There was little guilt, both humans and Decepticons had brought it upon themselves.

Now that they were back in relative safety, they had to attend to their duties and check on all divisions and all the coordinating that needed to be done after a battle.

Lyric would have been in the medbay by now, under watch. So checking up on her could take a few hours, even if they didn't want to wait that long.

* * *

><p>Lyric had been hidden away in the deepest part of her own being, it wasn't warm at all, or gentle like a spark should be. It was cold and lonely, and there was no light but the one irradiating from herself.<p>

At some point, she barely took note that some of the webbing was being torn away from her hiding place.

It might have been cold and lonely there, but it was safe despite it all. The pain didn't reach here, it was still...peaceful...in its own way.

"Lyric..."a voice broke it all, rising what little was left of her being into an alert state.

"Stay away!" she tried to snap at the voice, she would have crawled away if there had been anywhere else to go to. "leave me alone!"

"Its all righ' sweetspark, he's gone. Its safe to come out again."

"LIES!" she cried out, metaphysically intending to cover her own audios, if she had any.

"its okay" the voice repeated "I'm fixing the mess he left ya in, ya will be back to yerself soon." he promised. "But ah need ya ta come outta there, its not safe ta stay there." he called out.

"No! You're just saying that so you can catch me! Corrupt me further!" she accused.

"Lyric..." the voice sounded truly saddened. "come out baby...please? Lemme see that yer all righ'"

"Go away!"

"Baby... do you know who Ah am?" he received no answer this time, a sinking feeling setting in his own spark "Its your carrier, Ah'm yer papa, an' yer mah lil' girl"

"Please just leave..." her voice came out as broken and tired, she just wanted to be at peace...

Without her permission, she felt a pressure on her being, like something unclean, something impure was entering her very core, cutting off her breath.

A figure started to enter within her hide out, so bright she could barely stand to look at it.

"No! Stay back!" she started to panic, feeling like if she could, she would be crying.

The figure came into her core, stopping at the entrance as its shine started to die down, and he looked around for a moment, before his brilliant blue visor landed on her metaphysical form.

"There you are..." he approached with gentle steps crouching in front of her. "Its okay" he said soothingly, keeping his distance, despite having already invaded her most sacred place. "Come with me? Ah promise ya won't be hurt outside."

She felt like she was breaking into hysterics, felt like she would be gasping for air between cries but those feelings ended up only coming through as feelings rather than actions.

Jazz seemed to read them well and closed the last bit of distance between them, wrapping her up in his arms, pulling her close.

"Shh... its all righ'...its all righ'...its over. Yer safe." He promised, trying to soothe her, filling her with love and care. "Yer daddy's near as well." he told her, rubbing circles on her back. "We're workin' on fixin' ya. Yer friends wanna see ya too."

"No! I don't want them to see me! I don't want anyone to see me!" she cried out, smothered by his comforting feelings.

"Ah know... It feels that way at first, but no one will think less o'ya for what happened. In fact, most think o'ya as a hero." He said, petting her dim form.

"I'm not a hero! I'm just a stupid little slave...!" Jazz quickly followed that through process and deleted it, making a momentary patch, this was part of the coding speaking for her, and it needed fixing badly.

"Yer not a slave, an' yer not stupid, yer very bright an' a free sentient bein'. Dun' let anyone tell ya otherwise."

"Wheres my master? You shouldn't be here!"

He let out a vent, working on deleting that part of the code as well as they spoke.

"Ya dun have a master, but yer righ' Ah shouldn't be here, this place should belong only to ya. But ya need help. Ya can't stay hidden in 'ere, its gonna consume ya."

The form he held flickered, weakened and flinching at his editing.

"I can't go, I can't face them, master will be angry"

Jazz frowned, working faster on that bit of code.

"Sweety...there ain't no master, Soundwave released ya. Yer home now, yer safe."

"I can't..."

"Ya can... Ah'll be with ya the whole way kay? Ya dun have ta face it alone."

He didn't receive an answer, just her form clinging to his presence, soaking in everything he could give.

Gently he pulled her towards the exit, going slowly, giving her time to adapt to what was happening.

Once they emerged outside of the chamber, she gasped, fear rippling through the entire space and she tried to run back in.

He held her outside however, waiting for her to calm down, to recognize her own space.

"Shhh... its okay." he soothed "there's nothin' ta be afraid of. See? The code is going away" he motioned around them, where the net had retreated a bit, not completely, not even near that, but it was slowly going back.

"I don't-Ican't-I'm scared!" she whimpered, the space around them rippling again with feelings of fear, terror, panic.

"Its okay...I'll stay with ya kay?All ya ever have ta do is call for meh. Ah'll come in no time."

"Promise?" It sounded so much like a youngling...like the age she was meant to have and not the front she always put up.

"Promise." he said, trying his best to calm her down.

He held for a while in silence, when that wasn't calming her down, he began to do the only thing he knew that always made him calmer...he sang:

Oh my precious Sparkling  
>Still so weak and small<br>I know that there will be a day  
>When you stand brave and tall<br>But until that time arrives  
>You will rest here in my arms<br>For you are my creation and  
>I will protect you from all harm<p>

My perfect little Sparkling  
>You are everything to me<br>My galaxy, my universe  
>The best that there could be<br>I hope that you will always know  
>That what I say is true<br>I thank Primus everyday  
>For letting me have you<p>

Oh my darling Sweetspark  
>Grow with honor and with pride<br>For what is the most valuable  
>Is what you are inside<br>Although you are still little  
>And my size is still quite grand<br>You have hold my everything  
>In that tiny metal hand<p>

Oh my lovely Sparkling  
>I do no want to let you go<br>But one day you will leave me  
>To learn what you must know<br>Till then you will stay right here  
>Those days have not yet come<br>For you are still too fragile  
>Your life has just begun<p>

Be brave my tiny Sparkling  
>I love you with all my spark<br>Though at times were are not together  
>We will never be apart<p>

Lyric's presence had steadily grown more tired, letting go of the fear and paranoia until her processors were fully relaxed and at peace, almost in a recharge like state.

"Get some rest" he murmured to her, giving her a last brush of his love "Ah'll be around."

He felt her slip away into her stationary recharge, and pulled out.

* * *

><p>Jazz disconnected from his daughter's processor, coiling back his cable into its compartment in his forearm and leaning back on his chair, he felt sore and tired, that had taken a long time.<p>

Prowl's gentle hand rested on his shoulder, giving him his support. "I will do the next round" He proposed.

"Nah, thats all'righ'." Jazz said, rubbing his facial plates. "she's a lil' scared, but Ah think she'll be all righ'."

"Did you succeed in pulling her out of her core chamber?"

"Yeah, it was a lil' difficult, but Ah managed, hopefully she won't go back in."

Prowl then felt him swell with pride, and sent a questioning feeling to his mate.

'Ah got ta see her two spark codes, she dun' got a third yet.' he explained over the bond.

'And?'

'Protection an' Survival 's what she got.' he said with a cheeky grin, leaning against his mate.

'Hm...surprising...one of my own codes and one of yours' he mused.

'makes ya wonder what the third one's gonna be. Must be somethin' amazin', if her choices were already so perfect.'

'We shall see, that is up for her to decide.'


	35. Climbing higher

It was taking Jazz hour after hour to edit code and correct it, redirect it and rearrange it.

So much of it was corrupted, others had been hastily damaged, either by Soundwave or herself, but from what he knew of Soundwave's style, this messy damage had been Lyric's own.

The young femme had been stationary since his last talk with her, her meta resting and taking its time to adjust to the damage, slowly regaining control.

It was one morning when Jazz started his usual routine that he noticed something was off.

There was no firewall that could keep him out, the Decepticons knew this all too well, Soundwave knew, Red Alert would fritz about it every now and then.

But here was the first ever barrier, that he could not bring himself to break, not because of how difficult the task was, but because he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

Frowning, he pulled himself out back to reality, just in time to stop Prowl from leaving to his office.

"Ah'm gonna need yer help" He told him, stopping him on his tracks.

"What is the problem?" Prowl asked, maintaining his stoic appearance.

"She put up a firewall" He said simply. Prowl waited for him to say more, but when he didn't he asked.

"Yes? And what is the problem about that? You can easily break it and carry on I'm sure."

"Yeah, Ah can." Jazz agreed. " But Ah won't, not with this one. She put up a memory field firewall."

Prowl's optic ridges rose in understanding.

Memory fields were a way for mechs and femmes to protect their minds from invaders, attempting to lose them in a labyrinth of their memories. These firewalls were pretty easy to break yes. However, doing so could potentially damage the user, as it was their memories they were breaking after all.

There was always two ways to face them: break them, or go through them and find the way out.

So breaking was out of the question, which meant he had to go through it. However doing so did not mean it was less painful or less damaging than breaking it. It could be avoided if done right, but if not, it could have as serious consequences.

In a moment's thought, Prowl knew immediately that Jazz required his help to sort through those memories carefully. Had it been an enemy, he would have had no doubts about his procedure, even a fellow Autobot...

But he would never dare to do so with Lyric without Prowl's help.

"Very well." He said simply, retaking his seat and removing the connector cable from his forearm to plug in next to Jazz.

The moment he came in he was faced with the same ethereal cloud of fuzzy colors Jazz had been standing in front of ever since he came in.

"That looks of a fair size." He said drily, knowing how much work that meant it was going to be.

"It is." Jazz agreed" One o'the biggest Ah've seen."

"Do you feel prepared for it?" Prowl questioned.

"No..." Jazz admitted reluctantly. "Do you?"

"No." his mate replied in equal honesty. "But it must still be done does it not?"

Jazz merely nodded, taking the initiative and stepping in, Prowl close by his side.

Instead of going into somewhere, it felt more like they went out. The two of them stood in a lush garden, high up in a hill and facing a river. Both of them, although in their cybertronian forms, were now about the regular height of a human, and it was a strange experience to see things again from their point of view.

"This place feels familiar" Jazz noted, looking around "Not sure from where though..."

"I believe I may have an idea" Prowl said, accessing the area quicker "although we have never been this far into the location." Jazz turned to him for more. "We should be located at Lyric's human grandmother's home. The one that was a large estate." He explained. "If you remember, her foster parents often brought her here during her childhood."

"So we're dealin' with a childhood memory" Jazz concluded.

"There is a high possibility of such."

The two began to walk in a random direction of the gardens, beginning their search for any hint of what they might have to face.

It didn't take them long to hear a child's laughter coming from nearby and they followed it.

Carefully, they hid behind some trees and a bit of an old ruined stone wall and peeked at a large open area of the garden, where a little human girl was running around, sporting short brown hair, barely reaching the end of her jaw, and a dark green dress.

"There she is" Jazz whispered, as if they had just spotted their target.

"Let us not approach right away." Prowl suggested "we should make sure this is not a trap."

Jazz nodded, and they resumed to their task, watching the child play on her own, running around the garden, grabbing old leaves and pretending to serve a dinner table with them, making them the plates and the twigs being the cutlery. Then she would take two bell flowers and hang them around her ears to pretend they were earrings, and she was stuck now moving around trying to find something to act as glasses they presumed.

"This is takin' us no where" Jazz whispered after two hours of just watching "its time we make a move."

"I'm afraid so..." Prowl said uneasily.

"How d'ya suppose we should approach this?"

"Her mind is reflecting almost her actual age, so it should be easier for her to accept our appearance, however, we should still try to do this one step at a time, and give her no reasons not to like us or see us as a threat."

"Righ... cuz that's gonna go wonderfully."

Slowly the two edged out of their hide out, watching the child run around happily, her laughter ringing in their heads, infecting them with its happiness.

Then it all stopped when she spotted them, they stopped in turn, trading glances, trying to read each others, making no sudden moves.

"What are you doing here?" the child asked, sounding just like a youngling should have in a situation where it met strangers.

"We are here to take you out of this memory." Prowl responded, speaking as if it were the ultimate truth, but in the end they both knew it was much more complex than that, it just wouldn't do to tell that to a child though.

She took one hesitant step back, looking at them wearily and Jazz was quick to jump to the rescue.

"What he means is, we heard ya playin'." He explained, trying to sound as friendly as he knew how to.

"We wanted ta play too."

Again the child hesitated, but now for a different reason, her eyes shined with a kind of hope that should not have been there.

"You... you want to play with me? Really?"

"Oh yeah, Prowler an' Ah would love ta play with ya for a bit! If ya let us?" He said, picking up on her weakness. "Doesn't anyone play with ya?"

All too suddenly the garden felt cold and empty, reflecting her own feelings as she looked down, rummaging the ground with the tip of her shoe.

"No...they all just like to boss me around...not play...no one ever wants to play with a freak..."

Prowl frowned as Jazz leaned down, sitting on his heel caps to be more at her level, giving her a sympathetic smile.

"That so?" Jazz continued. "What makes ya say yer a freak?"

"Freaks don't play with other kids...cuz they don't do as their told...and they stink."

"You are not a freak and you do NOT stink" Prowl said, a little firmer than Jazz would have. "those children merely call you that because they are jealous of you, they fear you will take everything from them, because you are better than them."

The little girl looked up at him, her lips pursed and her eyes watery, she looked like she wanted to disagree with him, but for some reason she kept herself quiet.

"Prowler's righ'. Ah dun see any bit o' freak in ya. Do ya see yerself as a freak?"

Again she looked like she wanted to say YES, but something held her back, and they knew exactly what it was, despite her age, she had always been a mature little femme, and smarter than the average, not smart in science or medicine or anything like that, but smart in the understanding of how life works.

It was something that in the earlier years they had noticed she had shown in school, and in kindergarten, often being separated from others because of those traits. Even for cybertronian standards she had been pretty advanced in that. One could say she was the prodigy result of the two of them, Jazz liked to say they had implanted a tiny little piece of Prowl's processor in her when she was born.

"No..." she finally responded, looking at the ground as if admitting she had stolen the entire cookie jar.

"That's cuz ya aren't. An' if we wanna play with ya then this case is all the more concluded."

"You... you really want to...?" she asked, that shine of hope showing again. Too many days of loneliness had been filling those eyes.

"Whaddya say Prowler? Wanna play with lil' Lyric?"

"I... " playing was not exactly in Prowl's vocabulary these days, it had likely be millenia since he'd done so, and that had probably been when he'd been a mechling. "I would love to" he eventually said, his frame relaxing just with the acceptance and the thought of doing so with his own child for the first time.  
>It was one of the things the two had always lamented, never having had the chance to play with their first born.<p>

Her little face beamed, her mouth hanging open in a small gasp as she heard the words.

"An' Ah would too. Now, what kinda games would ya like to p-!" before he could finish he was glomped by the little child, who in this dream was an appropriate size for him, but he still worried about her flesh.

"Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" she said, squeezing as tightly as she could.

"Jazz!" Prowl's startled voice made him come back to his senses, and when he looked down at the form hugging him, it was no longer in human flesh, but rather, a modified version of Lyric's cybertronian appearance, only younger... the differences were naive, and not exactly correct, but it was probably how she saw herself if she had been around ten vorns old.

They stared in a bizarre mixture of awe and shock, unable to drink in the information being fed to their processors.

Even though they had already spent a few hours in this dream state, watching her, it hadn't occurred to them until now that this was sort of a chance to get to spend some time with their creation at a stage they had missed in the past.

"Y-yer welcome girly..." Jazz said, his vocalizer wavering a little as he gently pet the back of her helmet. "W-what do ya wanna play? Hm?" He asked as Prowl drew closer, as mesmerized as he felt, they could feel the constant share of a hopeful feeling inside them, circling back and forth between their bond. "Hide n' seek maybe? Or tag? Or-"

"How about who can climb highest faster?" she interrupted, peeking up from the embrace with bright blue optics.

"I don't think that is a very safe game Lyric..." Prowl began.

"No, its super safe! I promise!" she insisted, straightening up to look at both of them in the faceplate. "I've done it hundreds of times with my cousins!"

"Okay... so how does this work...?" Jazz asked hesitantly. It was only a dream after all, she wouldn't get actually harmed if she fell, and they were both there anyway.

"You just climb as fast as you can to the top when someone shouts what to climb. You have to think really fast!" she said, her speech accelerating with her excitement.

"Very well..." Prowl agreed "but lets stay clear of the bigger buil-"

"onetwothree bench!" she interrupted, darting off towards the single stone bench in the garden and climbing on top of it.

Prowl and Jazz just stared, blinking their optics.

She rested her tiny fists on her hips and puffed out her cheekplates "come on! You're supposed to be playing!" she complained, then looked around.

"Okay, here goes another one! One two three stone stairs!"

She ran off again, like an arrow crossing the yard towards the stairs that would lead to a higher level where the large family house stood.

Prowl stared for a moment more, only snapping out of it when Jazz got to his pedes and began to run after the little youngling, he was obviously not going at his full speed, his intention was to just 'play'.

Eventually Prowl rolled his optics and walked after them...slowly.

"Come on! You can do better than that!" The youngling complained already at the top of the stairs, Jazz next to her, patting the top of her helm sympathetically.

"'fraid Prowler's not feelin' very competitive girly, but dun worry, ya got me ta run against." He grinned when she frowned, taking that as a challenge.

As soon as Prowl reached the top of the stairs she went again.

"Onetwothree ROOF!"

"Wait what?" both of them said, taken aback long enough for the child to run off from them and to the building, jumping at the wall, grabbing the rain pipe and starting to climb her way up with speed, like a spider crawling up a wall.

"Lyric! Get back here! That's dangerous!"

"The rules were no big buildings!"

She giggled in a high pitch child voice, looking down for a moment "I didn't hear no rules!" she claimed, making an innocent face before continuing to climb.

"Tsk! Come on we better follow before she falls" Jazz said, transforming his arm to let out its grapple.

Lyric was almost at the top when she saw the grapple land on top of the roof and latch onto it securely.  
>"Hey! No cheating!"<p>

"Ah could say the same" Jazz said, testing the cord before beginning his way up.

She hurried, climbing the hardest part, which was the small space under the roof and then onto it, she then rolled onto the tiles, exhausted but with a triumphant grin on her face.

"Seriously girly, dun' do that again" Jazz spoke as he joined her on the roof, sending the grapple back down for Prowl. "That was dangerous." He said sternly.

Her grin did not die down, her optics shut tight as she just rested and felt the air up at that height.

"There's no fun without some danger."

"There's less dangerous places ta climb."

"There's also even more dangerous" she countered smartly, rolling over onto her belly and looking up.

"I told you it was fine, I know how to climb, I've done this lots o' times!"

"No. Lyric Ah dun' care how many times ya did it before, its still dangerous, one o' these days yer gonna hurt yerself with that attitude." When she frowned at his comment, he sighed, sitting down next to her just as Prowl was reaching the top. "Listen... Ah'm not sayin' it ta be mean or anythin'. Ah jus' worry." he explained. "Ya can get really hurt an' we wouldn't want that. Ah don't think ya would want ta get hurt either hm?"

"No..." he admitted with a pout, sitting up onto crossed legs, and picking at the small wheels on her pedes.

"Good, Ah'm glad ya understand that." He waited for a second as Prowl sat on the other side of her, expecting her to say something, when she didn't he let out a vent and reached over, pulling her in a one armed hug. "Dun' be so upset girly... s'fine this time..."

"Yes, as long as you understand and have learned the lesson." Prowl agreed. Had it been the twins, Prowl would have given them the preach of their lifetime (and if Jazz remembered right, he did at one point or another ), but this was Lyric, and in their current situation, he had to let it go.

"Thanks..." Lyric murmured in a small voice, letting Jazz keep hold of the hug.

"For what?" Prowl inquired, looking down at her.

"For playing with me...and for letting me off from climbing up here like that..." she said, pulling her legs closer to herself. "Normally people don't let me be me...I love to climb but everyone says I can't do it, I love to draw but my teacher trows it out the window and tells me to focus on math instead, that its more useful..."

"Ya do love to draw dontcha girly?" Jazz replied easily, registering her tones and mood.

She nodded slightly "its fun... I get to tell stories and live them, I get to run away from things I don't like."

"What sort of things?" Prowl questioned, his doorwings twitching once. She wouldn't be talking about this unless it was important, everything always had a meaning within these dream states.

She shrugged "I don't know... my parents arguing...the other kids at school... my teacher...my aunts and uncles... grandma..."

"That's a lotta things ta run away from." Jazz pointed out, squeezing his hug on her a little.

She seemed a bit uncertain. "Its not really the people... its more what they do..." she tried to explain, struggling with coming with a decent way to explain it. "they don't accept me for being me I guess..." she concluded.

"And who are you?" Prowl questioned, observing his creation with caution as she struggled with speaking.

"I'm..." she paused, looking down at the garden and then up to the sky "I'm ...free." they waited in silence for her to continue, but it was a while until she gathered her bearings and did so. "I like to explore, to challenge myself, I like to draw and make up stories, I like animals, I like fairness, justice I guess...I like to help, and animals and stuff..."

"That sounds pretty awesome to me" Jazz said with a bittersweet smile, rubbing her shoulder as the three stared off into the horizon in front of them, the sun was setting.

"Indeed, those are remarkable things in a person, so long as you control yourself" Prowl agreed, scooting nearer to the two.

"I guess... but I also got bad stuff of course!" she added quickly. "like...like I'm lazy! And I don't like showers, nor to brush my teeth!I don't like to be held back. And I'm realllyyy messy!"

They chuckled, Prowl petting her helmet.

"That is fine, so is Jazz."

"Hey!"

She giggled as the elder mech pouted at the other.

"Jessicaaaa! Time for dinner!" a voice called, snapping them out of their moment.

She let out a groan, looking back towards where the voice came from "that's my mom...she's gonna be really mad if I don't go..."

"Ya dun have ta..." Jazz said hesitantly. "Ya could stay here with us." he proposed.

The child gave him a sad smile, that felt much, much older than it should have been.

"That would be nice...but no. I have my duties to my family. Maybe we can play another time?"

"Anytime ya want sweety." Jazz promised, hugging her closer, as tightly as he dared, he didn't want to let go.

"So long as you do not climb without telling us beforehand" Prowl agreed, joining his mate in hugging the child. She let out a pleased purr, staying there for a moment, before finally breaking it.

"I better go then... I'll see you next time?"

"We'll be here" Jazz promised, as they had to let her go.

She gave them one last uncertain look, before rushing to the edge and beginning her climb down.

As she disappeared from their sights, they felt themselves slowly be pulled out of her processor and shoved out back to reality.


	36. Bullies

Taking care of Lyric's memory firewalls turned out to be more demanding than they had first anticipated.

Just when they finished dealing with one, she would create another, and then another, and it never seemed to end!

Currently they had been working on them in turns, each going to work when their turn was over.

They were exhausted, it felt like they were living through years at a high speed, learning faster than normal what should have taken them fourteen vorns to learn.

To top it off, Jazz also had the duty to correct code as much as he was able...which ever parts were accessible to him that is.

Eventually Ratchet had had enough, and threatened the two to take a day off, or so help him he would put them under medical leave.

It was the rest they had needed, once they were done. Jazz returned to his duties as third in command and Special Ops head, while Prowl went to take his turn with Lyric.

He didn't expect today to be very different from the usual, a childhood memory, likely of her hiding away from her foster family to have some fun and a few moments of freedom.

He would do what they always did: play for a little while, talk and then comfort whatever was bothering her. Lyric turned out to be someone that always felt a great deal of responsibility towards others around them, and even at young age it had burdened her.

He sat down in the usual chair, and opened the compartment in his forearm taking out the cable to connect to her processor. He was sucked in like usual, and found himself in a human street, around him were tall buildings, and what appeared to be one of Lyric's old schools. Her second if he wasn't mistaken. The sun was setting soon, bathing the area in an orange light, the sounds of the students inside the building could be heard as a light buzz, and a few of them, whose teachers had not shown up to teach, were playing ball in the school yard.

Prowl waited patiently, listening in for any clues of where Lyric could be, trying to find any signs of what he was supposed to do this time.

Then it happened, young children's yelling, not the happy kind, he turned towards the sound in time to see the young cybertronian run around a corner of the school building, skidding a little as she turned directions so quickly and running as fast as she could forwards.

Behind her, came a group of boys, he counted eleven of them, all of them wearing amused smirks and chasing after the young femme with whatever they could use for weapons in their hands.

Lyric however proved to be much faster than them and gained some distance, enough o give her time to scale up a large oak tree near the metal bars fencing the school.

She took shelter in its thickest branches, just as the boys caught up to her. They circled the tree, some of them attempting to clumsily climb it before falling off on their afts in the cement.

"Get back down here and we won't be so hard on you!" The apparent leader, a boy with light brown hair, green eyes and a tan skin spoke, grabbing a rock from the ground.

"Like I'm going to believe that!" she snapped from her perch "you'll just hurt me twice as bad!"

"Get down here so we can beat that arrogant little smile off your face!" another growled, making another attempt to climb the tree.

"Hmmm... how about no? Do you honestly think I have your pea brain? I'm not handing myself over to you simple brains."

"This is your last warning! You're making it harder than it has to be!" the leader spoke again, glaring up at the femme.

She stuck her tongue out at him in response.

"That's it! Grab some rocks! We'll force her down!" He shouted to his henchmen, throwing the very first rock, which bounced off the branch she hid behind of.

Soon enough, she was being showered by rocks, and Prowl was about to dash and intervene when she swung from a branch and threw herself over the fence, barely missing in palling herself on it, and landing crudely on the floor.

Primus he hoped nothing was broken. Even if in reality that didn't happen, it did affect her dream persona in many ways.

"Get her!Get her!" the boy shouted angrily, just as she managed to gain her bearings and roll onto her feet.

She didn't manage to jump away from some of the rocks being thrown at her, but she did see the boy reach for his backpack, and take out something black and as long as his hand. Her eyes widened and she made a mad dash to hide behind a car.

A loud BANG! Followed after her, something hitting the tire of the car and piercing it, it squeaked out its air the car lowering towards that side.

Prowl's spark tightened, that was definitely not a rock, and what the boy held, was definitely not a toy gun.

"You lot!" He shouted, getting their attention, the boys looked startled at first, then panicked, they scrambled for their bags and ran back inside the school before he could even address them further.

Waiting a moment to make sure they would not return, Prowl turned back to the car, slowly walking around it to find his creation sitting on the ground, curled into herself in absolute silence.

With a sigh, he knelled down next to her.

"Its all right Lyric, they're gone now" He spoke softly, waiting for her answer.

She took in a shaky breath, sounding slightly like she was crying, which he really couldn't blame her for.

"They'll be back later...they always come back."

"No. They will not. I promise you they will not." he said, reaching to pet her atop the head, frowning at the mess her hair was in, it had lots of tiny papers in it, and even a chewing gum, which really needed to be cut out now...

"They always do...we're in the same class after all...they will just make me pay double next time..." she said depressingly.

"I promise you, you do not have to return there, you will never go through this sort of bullying again if I can help it." Prowl said, sitting down next to her. "What were they bullying you for anyway?" he asked.

"I was reading..." she mumbled with a sniff.

"Reading?"

"Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban "she explained "I...like to read...and they don't like those kind of people so..."

"So they picked on you" he surmised.

"They started throwing papers at me, and other stuff they had from their left over lunch..." that would certainly explain the gum. "I snapped and told them to knock it off...should have just stayed quiet and endure it."

"No, you should not have endured it at all." Prowl corrected "you had more than right to snap and to tell them to stop, it is they who acted wrongly towards you after all. There is nothing wrong with standing up for yourself."

"Except when it makes others shoot at you..."

"That, was taking things too far." Prowl said severely. "That child should not even have a gun in his possession, it was luck that that was likely his first time holding it and that he was such a bad shooter by nature." he admitted.

She didn't say anything to that, staying in her huddled position, trying not to let any of her sniffling be heard.

Prowl let out another vent, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer to his side.

"Everything is fine, you don't have to go back there, I will protect you from them." It was the role of the sire after all, to protect their offspring, but it was much more than just a role, it was something he wanted to do.

"I HAVE to go back there... my parents-"

"Want what is best for you." He interrupted.

"They want me to succeed in school..."she corrected.

"No." he let out another ex vent. "Lyric we've been dragging this out long enough, Jazz and I." he said petting her head. "Deep down I know you know it as well, your human parents...are not your parents. We are."

The child took a moment, lifting her head a little to stare at the concrete in front of them.

"I...I know..."

"Then you should take my word when I tell you that we do not want this life for you. If I were able, I would go back in time and undo it all, but I cannot. What I can do however, is make sure to end this misery you live in your mind every orn."

"I...I'm not sure that I can..."

"You can, as long as you want to."

"I...do want it to stop...I want to forget the pain..."

"Then let us help you. We can take it away, and we will be with you along the way while you recover from it. I admit it will not be easy, it never is, but it is worth getting rid of a life of pain and fear."

Her eyes began to water again, and she tried to muffle a small cry, hands grabbing at her messed up hair.

Prowl only did what he could, pulling her closer against his chassis, letting her hide her face in it, feeling the tears fall and trail down his metal.

"There now... I am your sire Lyric, and I will do everything I can to make you happy, just like your carrier"

A small cry broke through and she grabbed at his metal tightly.

"Daddy... I want out." Prowl felt his own spark stall, those were words he had been hoping to hear from her, at least when she was conscious, this was the first time.

" Come then, I'll help you find the way." He said, shifting his presence to exit the dream state.

He couldn't actually bring her with him, but he hoped that at least that way she would follow out of that dream.

He unplugged his cable from the side of her helmet with the usual care, and rolled it back in place, sinking back in his chair. That, as usual, had been exhausting.

He didn't know how much longer he and Jazz could keep this up, it was keeping them from their duties, and it took most of their energy to go through with it too.

It didn't help that Ratchet simply couldn't tell how long until the young femme woke up, because it entirely depended on breaking through those firewalls. And that meant, whenever the young femme was ready.

A loud gasp startled him out of his musing so harshly he nearly jumped off his chair.

In an instant he saw his daughter's body arch, and go back down onto the berth as she entered a coughing fit, trying to spit out the feeding tubes from her mouth plates.

"Ratchet!" He called urgently, leaning on the side of the berth, petting the femme's helm trying to soothe her, her bright blue optics darted in every direction in panic.

"Its all right" he said to calm her down "Ratchet is coming, he'll take those out."

The medic was there hurrying to the med berth just as he said that, rushing to check the stats and then to remove the tubing.

"Hold still! It'll be harder if you squirm so much!" he grumbled as he and Prowl tried to keep her in place.

Once they took the tubes out, she coughed, squirming even further now that she was free. The stats on the machine began to bleep warnings as she twisted her body painfully.

Sure enough, parts started to shift, changing her pleasure bot appearance the cons had forced her to take, and slowly but surely becoming smaller...its color darkening all the way to black leaving only the optics with their blue shade.

When it finally ended, she laid there, heaving, trying to cool down her systems with noisy fans. She was smaller, possibly the smallest size her shape shifting abilities could manage. One could easily mistake her for either a microbot or a youngling of around 10 vorns old.

"Its all right" Prowl tried to reassure her. "its over now, everything is fine." he repeated the mantra for her until she started to calm down, her systems slowing as she looked at him with blurry optics.

"D-daddy..." she cried out pitifully, a hand managing to hold onto his persistently.

"Shhh... I'm here" he said, briefly glancing to Ratchet who had been checking all the vitals carefully.

"She's exhausted, but not much more than that" He said after a while. "The sorcelling is probably responsible for it. I recommend letting her rest before you two attempt to fix the rest of the coding. Also you should probably be able to unlock her memories now, but I advise doing so bit by bit, too much information can be too overwhelming sometimes."

"Understood. Should she stay here? Just to be safe?"

Ratchet hesitated, looking at the young one holding on desperately to Prowl's hand.

"...no. Right now she needs you more than a lonely medbay with bots she doesn't even remember. She needs to have a sense of safety and stability, and like it or not, that's your job."

"One that I will grateful take." He said, gently helping his creation to sit up.

"Do you need any help taking her?" The medic suggested, eying his disoriented looking patient wearily.

"No, I can take her by myself."

"Very well then, you can give her some midgrade to compensate for the sorcelling, but after that its only low grade as usual." he instructed.

"Thank you Ratchet, we'll be leaving then, come Lyric." He encouraged, helping her to stand.

She nearly collapsed at first, only not doing so because of his hold on her arms.

After a moment of fighting off her unbalance, she managed to walk with him out of the medbay.

Ratchet watched them off, glad to have that patient out of his hands for now.


	37. A ten vorn old

Lyric walked slowly next to Prowl, the elder mech letting her set their pace, which was a little bit too slow, but he didn't mind. She was weary and didn't recognize anything, so he let her sink things in slowly.

What felt incredibly good however was the fact that she never let go of his arm, clinging to it like a persistent need. Better than that, her words still echoed inside of his soul. It was one thing to call him 'daddy' or 'sire' in her dreams, where she wasn't fully aware of what she was doing, but it was another entirely to do it when she was awake and conscious.

That being said, her lack of memory also affected her personality a bit, but Prowl couldn't help but enjoy that tiny little side effect.

"Do you wish to fuel before we return to our quarters?" He suggested, stopping by one of the electronic windows so she could fully observe the cave outside.

"Some fuel would be nice" she admitted, lowering her head a little in embarrassment.

"This way" he informed, petting her atop the helmet before redirecting their path to the rec room.

She didn't say a word the whole way there, and in general would keep her helm low and her optics on the ground whenever someone passed by them, giving him a casual greeting.

When arriving to the rec room however, things were very different.

All too suddenly she was aware of the many bots around, going about their daily business, but sneaking glances their way when they thought she wasn't looking, or outright smiling at Prowl and congratulating him for something.

Some even directed some words at her, saying they were happy she felt better, and wishing for a full recovery.

She nodded shyly, ducking her head in embarrassment and half hiding behind Prowl's legs, thanking them for their kind words in a barely heard volume.

It felt horrible to not remember these mechs, even if Prowl was politely telling her their names and professions and their connections to their family unit.

"I must apologize everyone" Prowl said to yet another group sitting at a round table near the dispensers. "But it is taking a little too long and we just came to get Lyric some energon, I have to take her back to her berth for rest."

A yellow minibot, by the name of Bumblebee waved him off carelessly as if he were an old friend and not a high ranked officer.

"Go on ahead Prowl, we shouldn't keep you waiting. Don't forget to tell Jazz the news! He'll be flying across the ship as soon as he hears."

"I am restraining from telling him until after his meeting with Optimus. Then I have no doubt that he will." Prowl responded easily.

A red minibot, almost exactly like Bumblebee, by the name of Cliffjumper snickered, grabbing at his brightly colored cube.

"You're just making it harder on yourself mech. Well go on, before he finds out everyone but him knows already."

Prowl nodded, barely giving them a semblance of a smile.

"I shall, enjoy the rest of your break" He said, before turning and walking the rest of the way to the dispenser.

There, Lyric waited as closely to him as she could, observing the room nervously, feeling watched and judged. She didn't like those feelings, it made her feel guilty for some reason, like she'd done something wrong, that was usually the reason for getting so much attention wasn't it? But everyone seemed so nice...

It didn't take Prowl more than a few kliks, but even that wouldn't have prevented what was to come.  
>Halfway through the second cube filling the door to the recroom opened, an uncybertronian like screech filled the air, making her jump and dash behind her sire again.<p>

"Lyyyyyyy!"

A young cybertronian femme, carrying three strange organics came running from the door as soon as they spotted her.

They slowed down as they got closer, noticing that something was off.

"Ly?" the cybertronian asked uncertainly, the other three she held growing quiet.

Prowl looked between he group and his creation, feeling a tinge of pity, he pat her on the helm, trying to give her some reassurance.

"Its all right Lyric, these are your friends." He said gently, staying as her shield while she slowly gained the courage to peek back at the femmes with widened and bright optics, uncertainty written all over her.

"Friends?" she repeated in a small voice.

"Yes, your friends, they have been worrying about you, so you should at least say hi don't you think?"

Lyric looked between him and the femmes uncertainly, before lowering her head in a nod and in the lowest volume she could say "hi".

"What happened to her? Why does she look so different?" Dj, or Fusion as she was now known by her original name, asked looking confused and curious at the same time.

"Lyric has had some...memory issues ever since her return" Prowl informed, stroking a hand behind his creation's back, trying to comfort her. "It is nothing permanent, but for the time being we are taking things slowly. As for her looks, its a reflection of her state of mind, a...side effect if you will."

"I didn't know we could do that" The cybetronian femme spoke, looking a bit taken aback by the news.

"Normally you cannot, it is a very special skill of Lyric's." he explained. "I apologize for not having informed you of her release, but we just came from the medbay and we were about to return to our quarters for some rest. There will be another time for you to chat."

"But-!" one of the organics spoke up, the more rounded one, looking like she was in conflict with herself, tears were on the verge of streaming down her eyes. "But I-!"

"Another time perhaps" Prowl interrupted easily "It is too soon to speak about what happened. Say goodbye Lyric." He told her politely, giving her a light push to start walking with him.  
>She stayed glued to his legs, watching the group as they passed by them "Bye..." she muttered, waving slightly with her hand as she and Prowl made their way out.<p>

The group stared after them, none of them saying anything, or even gesturing, the last look she saw on their faces, was still of shock and sadness.

Once outside, Lyric waited for them to have walked a bit further away from the recroom before relaxing a little and asking.

"Why did they look so sad? You said they were my friends, shouldn't they have been happy?"

"Indeed, but they must be feeling responsible about what happened to you, and it saddens them that you do not remember them I suppose." he said easily. "they were very anxious to see you well again, I suppose it was a bit disappointing."

"Oh..."she thought for a moment "is there anything I can do to make it better?"

"Once your memories start returning to you everything will sort itself out, but you should be patient and not rush it."

She nodded at this, stopping behind him as he reached for a door's lock, inserting a quick code.

The door slid open, revealing the living quarters inside. She was gently pushed in, the door locking behind her sire.

She took it all in with time, feeling like the place was familiar, but not quite remembering it.

"These are our quarters" Prowl spoke leading her further in. "you can walk around freely here without fear." Despite this she stuck to him like glue, feeling uncomfortable with wandering around. "Hmmm...or just stay with me if you wish I suppose..." he mused on the problem, she couldn't be stuck to him all the time... "Why don't we take the time we have left to wash you up? You've been in the medbay for so long you probably need one."

"T-that would be nice" she agreed, letting herself be directed to the washrack.

Had Lyric her old memories, she would have never allowed Prowl to be there while she washed, but as she was, she wouldn't stay in that room if he left. Thankfully, when it came to cybertronians, they didn't always have to take their armor off to wash, most of the time they washed with their armor on, unless they fell in a mud pit or something of the sort.

He sat her down on a small stool, and grabbed his usual one, the one she sat one usually being Jazz's.

He turned on the solvent, checking the temperature, not that he needed to very much as his creation was already under the water, enjoying the cool spray.

He then grabbed a sponge and went to his own stool, rejoicing in her giggles when the water bounced off of his own armor and onto her face, this was going to last as much time as she enjoyed it.

* * *

><p>Jazz was in a sour mood, he was tired, he had just come out of a very exhausting meeting with Optimus, Red Alert and Ironhide, taking over his and Prowl's duties was more than a bot should handle, especially Prowl's duties. How his mate managed was still a mystery most of the time to him.<p>

All he wanted now was to take a nice warm cube of energon, lie down on the couch next to Prowl and watch the dullest program it could possibly have until he fell to recharge.

He was headed towards the recroom for his cube when he received an incoming message from Prowl.

He inwardly groaned, that's right... it was his turn to go to the medbay and have a check on Lyric's firewalls. Primus he was getting too tired to do these...

Reluctantly he opened the message, and scanned it quickly, only to stop and read it again when its meaning finally registered.

In less than a klik he did a 180º degree turn and started a mad dash for their quarters, scaring anyone in his way into jumping against the wall, lest they wanted to be run over by the saboteur.

He nearly pounced into the panel next to their door, punching in the code with the speed he only used when desperately trying to hack an enemy door.

The door couldn't have slid open any slower, and he slid through the small opening as soon as he could, not even waiting for it to open fully.

He was met with a sight that nearly made his spark stop, giggling was filling the air, mixed in with Prowl's baritone chuckles as he tried to grab his creation from fleeing the couch, wrapping her in a towel, trying to dry her off as she mock tried to escape his clutches.

She looked different...again...he really would have to get that sorcelling program under control, but that was one of the least of his worries right now. His visor was glued to the sight of his mate and their creation playing, something he never thought he'd get to see.  
>Young blue optics caught sight of him and widened, a big smile growing so much more it was a miracle it didn't split her face in two.<p>

"Papa!" To his surprise, she managed to squirm out of Prowl's grip and ran towards him with the towel still on her head flowing behind her as she tackled him, nearly throwing him off in his surprise.

"Ooof! Heya baby girl!" he greeted, wrapping his own arms around her small form, smelling the fresh scent of a nice polish, her black armor was shinning and clean, evidence of Prowl's perfectionist work.

"How ya doin'? Yer daddy jus' told me ya were out, Ah would've come sooner if Ah had known"

Her intoxicating giggles made him nearly melt and lean down to pick her off the floor.

"He wanted me to look pretty for when you came back" she explained, wrapping her limbs around him for better support, comfortable with where she was.

"Did he now? Well he did a mighty fine job, ya look gorgeous" he teased, moving closer to his mate and sinking into the couch next to him.

"I apologize, I did not wish to interrupt your meeting." Prowl spoke honestly, reaching to pet his creation's helm as she purred and nested in Jazz's lap, her new doorwings giving small flaps of contentment.

"S'all righ'. 'Least ya got ta have some time togetha, cuz now she's all mine!" he teased, tightening his arms around her a little and pretending to eat her as they rolled on their side to the rest of the couch, the femmeling squealing and giggling as she struggled to get loose.

Prowl shook his head with a smile, reaching for his subspace, taking out the cubes he had brought with him and setting them on the small table in front of the couch.

"Jazz..." he called, but the other mech didn't stop his attack on the small femme, tickling her and torturing her into more fits of giggles. "Jazz... she needs to fuel" He reminded him, and that was the only thing that made the mech slow down, sitting back up with her as they both tried to recover their breath.

"All righ', all righ'!" he said in good humor. "Come on girly, ya heard the boss." he teased, setting her between the two as Prowl gave her her cube.

She hungrily accepted it and began taking its contents immediately, barely taking breaks to vent, her pedes bounced back and forth as she did so.

She was so immersed in her meal that she wasn't even paying attention to her creators, who watched with curiosity to her new personality.

' Didn't exactly expect this when ya said she woke up' Jazz pointed out, drinking from his own cube at a more leisurely pace. Seems he got his evening in the couch after all.

' I apologize, there was a lot to tell and I knew you would have wanted to know and run here before I could give you any more details. Ratchet said we should unlock her memories slowly, I suggest we start tomorrow.'

' All righ'...so we get ta work like normal now?'

' I will try to fit our schedules so that at least one of us can watch over her, if we both cannot, then I am sure we can find someone to sit her.'

'Yeah... she can't be trusted on 'er own.'

'I do not believe she would enjoy that, our trip back here was eventful enough as it was, she would refuse to let go of my hand at any time.'

Lyric decided then to finish her meal and set down her cube before leaning back against the couch and making herself comfortable between them.

"Time for recharge Lyric, you've been up for too long" Prowl announced, pushing her a little out of the nesting place she was about to set for herself. "Say goodnight."

"Aw...fine..." she rolled her optics, before climbing to Jazz's lap, hugging him again and kissing his cheeplate lightly. "'Night Papa"

Jazz's spark tightened, he gently wrapped his arms around her, careful with his cube, and giving her a kiss of her on in the crest between her chevron. "Night girly, we'll talk more tomorrow k?"

"Kay." she yawned, climbing out of his lap to follow after Prowl to her room.

Jazz relaxed further into the couch, feeling like would melt into a hot bubbling puddle. Never since they brought Lyric with them all those months ago had he ever expected to have spent even a few minutes like that, just enjoying some time with his creation, as an actual creator and creation.

Her laughter still run in his audios like music notes long memorized for him to play again.

When Prowl finally came back from the room, he sank on the sofa next to him, looking as exhausted as he, and just as satisfied.

Without even thinking he snuggled up against his mate, purring in contentment.

"Wish that could last forevah..."

"So do I...perhaps..." he hesitated " perhaps Lyric will act differently to us once she recovers and realizes how she just acted with us. I t is good to enjoy her like this, but I still feel guilty of the conditions it comes under."

"Yeah... we'll work on it."

"Speaking of work." Prowl said, his processor already trying to make a clear plan for them "I have been thinking-"

"Mech, when do ya ever NOT think?" Jazz snorted playfully, getting a light slap from that comment.

"I was thinking that maybe, even with how things are, we should have Lyric start some training."

Jazz sat up stiffly, uncomfortable with the subject.

"Ah dun' know... Ah dun like the thought o' her fightin'"

"Sooner or later she will have to be taught. I assumed the recent events were proof enough of this."

"Yeh well, Ah still dun like it, maybe we jus' need ta tighten security."

"You know very well that if we do that, we will be making her life very intolerable, and she will rebel."

Prowl insisted, pulling his mate back against him, sending him some feelings of understanding and comfort. It was hard on him as well, but he would rather have this than take the risks.

"Ah still dun like it." Jazz said with a frown, crossing his arms over his chassis. "Its easy ta get hurt, an' it all depends on who teaches 'er. Even a good teacher might not be good enough-"

"Which is why I was hoping that you would take the job."

"Wha? Meh?" He rose his brow ridges, looking back at his mate suspiciously.

Prowl merely shrugged his shoulders, looking indifferent to the subject like he did whenever it was related to work.

"You are more than adequate for the job, you are one of our very best fighters, with experience in many fighting styles and skilled at various different types of weaponry, not only that but you do have the experience of teaching mechs for your division. And very successfully I might add."

"Well yeah but that's for special ops! She ain't gonna go into mah department if Ah have any say in it!"

"I was not suggesting that, I was merely hoping you could teach her and the other femme, Siren some basics. My own classes are too advanced at the moment and I cannot fit a new class into my schedule. You however are currently not training anyone and Mirage is more than capable of handling training sessions for your mechs."

"Ah guess..." Jazz began to relent.

"And also, you would be able to monitor and make sure that Lyric would get the best training available to her."

"Ah see where yer goin'..." The smaller mech said, leaning closer to his mate with a purr. "Ah always loved the way ya think..."

Prowl leaned back himself, trying to get some distance between himself and Jazz to no avail.

"I am glad that you approve of my plan then."

Jazz's hands snuck their way around Prowl's sides, and over his doorwings, tickling them with the lightest of touches.

"Ah approve of everythin' comin' from ya love" Jazz whispered, indulging his mate in a light and sensual kiss, relishing on the quivering doorwings under his skilled hands. "But yer gonna have ta pay the price fer trappin' meh in that plan o'yours."

Prowl gasped against his lips when he felt fingers sneaking into the circuitry of the joints of his doorwings.

"I shall gladly pay my due." he whispered back, wrapping himself around his mate.


	38. Friends's memories

That night had not been as calm and relaxing as both mechs would have wanted.

At around 2 in the morning they were woken up by Lyric's quiet crying.

How could they hear this? Well they had taken the precaution to use the old radios they had gotten when they knew they were going to have a sparkling. Of course they never got to use it, but since Lyric was in such an unstable state of mind they figured it couldn't be harmful. And it was a good thing they did, because as it turned out, she was having nightmares and anxiety moments where she couldn't be in a room without a light.

This resulted in the three of them once again in their berth, one of the berthside table's lamp on dim and a very restless child between them.

She woke up with the same type of fits about four times that night, and when morning was finally there, neither was sure if they had gotten any sound sleep.

Prowl got up first, going about his daily routine mechanically, normally others would think he was his usual self, but Jazz knew from the slight sag in his joints that he was merely going on automatic.

He waited a few kliks himself, looking down at the small creature nestled under him.

Hiding under your carrier's frame was mostly a sparkling act, but younglings who were still in their ten vorns, or close to the beginning of youngling hood also did it at times.

It wasn't exactly the most comfortable of positions for him to recharge in, in part because even if her frame tried to look like a ten vorn old, she was definitely not one, and had much more mass to cover.

Eventually, the sweet smell of warmed energon reached is olfactory sensors, and he nudged his creation awake.  
>She was disoriented for a moment, and tried to go back to sleep, but the sudden lack of coverage made her give that up quickly and quickly follow after her carrier, where it was most warm.<p>

Chuckling, Jazz guided her out.

It was a typical morning, as normal as it could get in the Ark. They sat at the table and began to eat I silence, merely enjoying the warm energon.

"Lyric" Prowl's voice interrupted the moment, gaining his creation's attention. "I realize this might sound a bit too soon, but your Carrier and I were discussing last night, and we thought it would benefit you to start with your Autobot training today."

"Oh..." she said, unsure how to feel about the subject, it was unexpected. "Okay...? What will I be training?"

"Jus' the basics, get a good feel of yer frame first, ya spent too much time inactive, so ya ain't gonna start with pushin' yerself jus' yet." Jazz explained. "Ah'll be teachin' ya, an another one o' the femmes."

That certainly got her full attention, she gave them uncertain looks, fidgeting in her chair.

"Another femme?" she asked, ducking her head.

"Yeah, one o' yer buddies. Her name is Siren, though ya used ta know 'er as "shioji" before. Dun' worry, yer gonna do fine, yer good buds"

"If we were that good buds then I shouldn't have forgotten about her..." she said grumpily.

"That is no one's fault other than the Decepticons, and it is fixable, it will just take time and patience Lyric" Prowl promised.

She let out a vent, sagging into the chair "if you say so..."

"Chin up!" Jazz said perkily, leaning over to adjust her position, making her sit straighter. "finish yer breakfast so we can get goin'. Its gonna be a long day."

Lyric had made every possible attempt to make Jazz give up their crazy idea, or at least to make them late.  
>Unfortunately, the mech was far too smart for her and maneuvered around her every attempt, miraculously managing to arrive at the training room just in time.<p>

At the door was Inferno and his creation, waiting for them to arrive.

The large mech smiled broadly, his immense frame seeming less intimidating thanks to his kind appearance.

The other femme stood next to him, looking unsure of herself. She had red and black armor, her helmet was very similar to her creator, but the rest of her frame showed signs of a smaller type of alt mode, more like her other creator Red Alert.

"Mornin' 'Ferno" Jazz greeted with his own charismatic smile, his arm resting around Lyric's shoulders, keeping her close to him subconsciously.

"Good mornin' Jazz. Thanks so much fer doin' this. Red an' me...we'd been talking about this." he said, patting Siren atop her helmet. "We were jus' givin'er some time to adjust."

"Its fine mech, Ah know how ya feel. Ya can rest easy, she'll be safe in mah servos, we're jus' gonna be doin' basic warm ups til they're ready for more."

Inferno nodded at this, looking down at his creation, who still seemed very unsure of herself.  
>"Hear that? See? Its not gonna be a big deal. An' yeh couldn't be in better servos." he coaxed. "Jazz is one of our best teachers."<p>

"I guess..." Siren said in a low voice.

"Sorry" Inferno apologized for her "she doesn't do exercise it seems. Has been tryin' to find a way out of it since we got yer message."

"I don't like others STARING at me when I'm exercising" she corrected "like I'm some kind of freak."

Before Inferno could say anything, Jazz tried to reassure her.

"Dun ya worry 'bout that girly, the only ones that are gonna be there is you, meh an' Lyric 'ere. An we dun think that do we Lyric?" he asked, looking back down to his creation who promptly shook her helmet vigorously.

"No!" she said rapidly " You're very pretty! I don't know why anyone would think of you as a freak" she said earnestly.

"See?" Inferno said gently, bending down to rest his large servos on her shoulders. "Its going to be fine." He gave her a light kiss atop the helm "I'll come by to pick yeh up later. You've got my comm. If you need anything urgently."

"Yeah...sure..." she said a little dejectedly.

He sighed, giving her a light pat before straightening. "I'll see you later then sweetspark" He said, before nodding to the other two and making his way to the other end of the hall.

They watched him go until he disappeared around the corner. Jazz then clapped his hands together, rubbing them together.  
>"Right, you guys ready?"<p>

"No..." they both said at the same time.

"Too bad, yer goin' ta do this anyway" he said pushing the two inside the large room.

The training room was possibly one of the largest divisions of the ship, it was easily a racing course, and it had separate rooms for additional or specific types of training, namely simulations.

"Lets start with some runnin' laps all righ'?" Jazz suggested "get yer framed warmed up an' well oiled." he said, slightly bouncing on his pedes in his own enthusiasm.

"Running?" Lyric whined.

"While we're still alive?!" Siren complained.

"Haha, very funny" Jazz said with impatience, patting the two on their backs and lightly guiding them towards the painted line serving as a track. "Get a move on, the more time ya take ta do these, the longer we're stayin' ere. An' ah got other things for ya other than running."

With pitiful groans and moans the two set off and a leisurely pace, staying close to each other, but with a respectable distance from one another.

It was only half way through the track, when they were far far on the other side of the room and away from Jazz that Siren decided to speak up.

"So... How are you feeling? Any better since you got out of the medbay?"

The question caught Lyric by surprise. Why would that matter? Why would she care? Well they did say they were supposed to be good friends, but Lyric was not used to the concept of having friends, she didn't trust people enough for that anymore, so how good of a friend was Siren really?

Deciding not to take too long in answering, she responded.

"I have rested plenty, but my creators obviously seem to think that I need work with exercising."

"Right..." The other hesitated, trying to think of something to talk about. "So...me and the girls...we were thinking...since your having trouble remembering things...things with us I mean, we thought that maybe you'd like to come with at the end of practice, and have a meal with us? You know, just hang out."

"Hang out?" Lyric repeated, the words seeming alien in her mouth, they tasted strange. "I don't know...my creators are being strict with what I can do and where I can go...I...I would have to ask"

Inwardly she was begging for Jazz to deny her the chance, but she had the feeling he would likely have a very opposite reaction.

"I see... well, we'll ask him?"

"Sure..." she said uncertainly.

There was a few moments of silence as they neared Jazz and passed by him.

When they were far enough away again, Siren dared speak once more.

"So... you really don't remember me?"

Lyric pursed her lip plates, she really didn't want to answer that, she might not have trusted the femme, but she didn't want to hurt her feelings either.

"I'm sorry...no, not yet. My sire says it should come back to me in time however."

"Right...no worries, just... you know, hard to believe."

"Yeah...I think I understand."

They carried on for three more rounds before Jazz ordered them to stop. By then both of them felt their knees buckle and the floor suddenly seemed like the comfiest bed in the world.

Jazz whistled, watching the two as their fans kicked on and they panted to try and cool themselves faster.

"you girls were sorely needin' this." he commented. "get yer grips together, because we're gonna continue soon" He said, officially giving them a little break.

"Wow...I used to ...hate running... and exercising...but I was never in this bad a shape!" Siren said between gasps.

"Dun' ya worry, we're gonna change tha' reaaaalll soon" Jazz said, grinning at the two, giving them chills up their spinal struts.

They practiced for longer than they could have cared, and by the end of it, they felt like their bodies were against them in their efforts to stand.

"Welp, Ah'd say that was a successful session!" Jazz beamed proudly, while the two let out pitiful moans.

"Yeah, if you want us dead, your on your merry way" Siren argued bitterly.

"Now now, none o'that black humour girly, it dun' suit ya."

"Actually I think it suits her perfectly "Lyric input "all things considered I feel inclined to do the same."

Jazz rolled his optics behind his visor, not that they could see it of course. He moved over and set an arm on each of their shoulders, guiding them to the exit "how about we go then? Ya look like ya need some energon" He suggested.

"Actually, we were hoping that you would let Lyric come with me to the rec room, me and the other girls were going to meet there...just hang out and stuff... nothing big."

"Hang out huh?" Jazz repeated thoughtfully, observing his creation's attempts to shrink out of the center of attention. "Sure, why not? Mind if Ah tag along? Need ta fuel mahself, an' Ah can't exactly let Lyric go 'round without an adult watchin' er."

Siren was a little taken aback at this, but quickly nodded.

"Um... sure, I don't think the others will mind. Its going to be a bit boring though, girl talk and all"

"Nonesense! Ah love girl talk. The gossip, the mech scorin'..."

"I don't think that's the kind of girl talk they mean..." Lyric tried to interrupt before he could say anything worse.

"Yeah, I mean we don't have anything planned..." Siren explained " but you know, just... hang out, be ourselves. Talk about...stuff"

"Mechs?" he suggested teasingly and then laughing at their looks of disapproval.

"Games, movies, anything other than guys!"

"Ya dun' like guys?" Jazz questioned interested.

"I didn't say that!" Siren quickly corrected. "We're just not interested in that sort of thing right now."

"Aw, that's too bad."He mocked playfully. "Ah'm still comin.'"

"Fineeeee..." Siren gave in.

Lyric looked between the two worriedly. She really didn't feel confident enough to go...but she couldn't be rude and just say she didn't want to.

In a way she was glad Jazz was coming along, so long as he didn't embarrass her.

'Ah'm not gonna do anythin' ta hurt ya' It came so suddenly she nearly jumped in fright, before realizing he was talking to her via their bond. ' Ah know ya didn't wanna go.'

' Then why did you make me go?' She asked back, curious.

He would have let out a sigh, but controlled himself to keep appearances. ' Because, as much as me an' yer Sire would love ta, we can't be everyone in yer life, ya do need ta go out and be with others, and these guys are yer friends. They're perfect for ya. Of course Ah couldn't just push ya into that in one go without help'

'So in reality, you're only coming to give me support?'

'If ya wanna put it like that... yeah'

She blinked, then walked closer to him, wrapping her arms around his lose one, holding it tight and sending him her thanks through emotions.

He pat her helm gently with his free hand, just before they entered the recroom.

Siren stopped at the entrance, searching for her friends. When she spotted them, they walked over to their table, the three humans were sitting on a table, sharing their dose of an energon cube.

"You made it!" Dj spoke first, jumping to her feet, Lacey followed suit, smiling up at them, while Windy stayed in her place, looking up indecisively.

"He nearly killed us, WITH EXERCISE!" Siren said dramatically, taking a seat.

Jazz pushed Lyric to sit on the other side, the young femme looking absolutely nervous and terrified.

"Ah'll be back shortly with some cubes" he told them, giving her one last pat before going off.

The other femmes scooted as close as they could to the table, looking straight at Lyric and Siren.

"But other than that, how was it? Is he any good?"Dj asked interested.

Siren was about to answer but a sudden burst of anger made Lyric beat her to it.

"Of course he is!" then she realized she had inadvertently raised attention to herself and ducked her head. "I mean...we only just started, we're not doing anything special yet, but of course he's good!"

"Sorry Ly, we didn't mean to sound offensive" Silverclaw said, the young blond girl. "we were just curious... we're all going to be trained by him... at least that's what we were told this morning..."

Calming down a little she nodded. "My papa's third in command of this army, of course he is good, you should have rationalized that by now."

"Nyyerrrr... I didn't think about it that way... you know I'm stupiddd" the girl whined.

"Don't talk like that about yourself" Siren said with some light hearted giggles.

"But I ammm" the other complained.

Lyric observed the whole argument without paying much attention, she was feeling like a side wheel, and by the looks of it she was not the only one, the chubbiest of the fleshy creatures was also quiet, head hung low, and overall looking miserable and ashamed of herself, she too was not participating in the conversation, and would refuse to look at anything but her drink.

"An' ere we go!" Jazz's voice broke her out of her thoughts, a cube of purple-ish color set in front of her, and a pink one in front of Siren. Jazz sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders comfortingly and sipped from his own pink cube.

The reason hers was a different color was because of medical grade, there had been a whole discussion about it that morning before breakfast.

She twitched her nose at the scent of the foul drink, it had tasted terribly early that morning, and she had no doubt it would taste terrible now. She scowled down at it a few minutes.

"Gotta drink it all girly" Jazz told her after a while, the others were still conversing animatedly.

"I know... I'm trying to gain the courage to do it." she grumbled.

"Piece of advise: do so while its hot, it'll be a lot nastier when it gets cold."

Heeding his warning, she took a quick sip of her drink, trying to take in as much as she could before she felt like she would vomit it and had to stop.

"There you go" Jazz encouraged.

"So when do you think you'll have your memories all recovered?" DJ's voice interrupted their own private little win over the vile tasting energon.

Lyric looked up, surprised to have the attention back on her. "I..."

"S'hard ta say" Jazz said casually "some memories can be reactivated normally, by triggers in events, others we're workin' on reactivatin' manually, mostly the vital stuff. S'all real stressful to do, so its better ta take time"

"So... if we say a lot of stuff that she should remember, should it trigger memories?" Lacey questioned, just to make sure.

"Maybe, depends. But its not somethin' that should be forc-"

"I want to try it" Lyric interrupted, sitting straighter now that her interest was piqued. "I want to try and remember those things."

"Ya sure?" Jazz asked, sounding a bit apprehensive, but Lyric only gave a firm nod, showing her resolve. She really wanted to remember her friends.

"Well, how about I go first then?" Lacey suggested, clearing her throat "well, we met when I became a fan of your comics, the ones you post online." she said, looking thoughtful as she spoke. It was a good thing that she took so long doing so, because it gave Lyric time to think over it. So she did comics? "We eventually started talking more and became friends. You've cheered me up and encouraged me a lot in the beginning when I was studying, then I dropped out and started working at a pet shop, I'd often show you the birds I was breeding for the store." A vague image of several birds chirping in a crappy webcam footage came to Lyric's mind, but she felt unsure of things, they were very scattered, just bits and pieces that she was trying to reconnect together.

"My first bird was named Country, he used to sing the same song over and over" and she began to whistle it. That seemed to trigger some gear in her processor, as she recognized the small song.

"I... remember that." she said, optics dinning as she tried to focus on the memory, it was slowly unlocking itself.

"Well... I guess I can go next" Siren spoke up. "I'm the first one you met, so we go way back." that made Lyric only feel worse that she didn't remember her "I started doing art posts before you did, and at the time you came to me looking for advice and a buddy to talk about the stuff we drew. We would often talk about series, jokes, actors, movies... the whole thing. Also a lot of school stuff since we were studying the same stuff and all. We even did some comics together."

Again vague memories came to the forefront of Lyric's meta, things she was trying to patch back together.

"And I met you when Siren decided to introduce us, I'm a lot younger, but we got along fine. We started doing our own co-op drawings and even a comic later on." she added. "we also played apples together, it was... crazy."

Lyric was feeling her processor start to get a little overwhelmed now, things blurring between the words she simply listened to now, and her inner visuals of memories. It was a confusing existence, and it made her head ache a bit.

When the others stopped talking about themselves, they all glanced over towards the one who had remained withdrawn and silent. Windy seemed to wither under the silence perpetuated by her own muteness. Her gaze which had been directed downward, a result of her continuing to hang low, dared to lift and look at Lyric, if only for less then half a moment.

Even when it looked like she wanted to say something, she seemed at a loss or too intimidated to make a sound despite reassurances from the others. Despite trying to keep her head low and hair covering her face, the sparse trembling in her shoulders made it clear she was trying not to cry. As support to this fact, in a weak attempt as passing it off as just having an itch on her face, her hand would come up to wipe her face of the tears starting to well up in her eyes.

Lyric became uncomfortable with the situation, shifting a little in her seat.

"S'all 'righ'" Jazz reasured.

"You don't have to talk about THAT yet... just normal stuff." shioji input.

Their words didn't seem to alleviate Windy in any way, a loud sniff being made before a quiet high-pitched whine sounded, more being made after that as a way to keep from making a real sob or despondent whail. She practically bit her lip to not let anything louder sound out. She shook her head, opening her mouth to try and find a real voice instead of the loud keens that wanted to come out.

Lyric bit her bottom lip, feeling her spark tighten at the sight "I-its okay...I don't mind."

Windy looked back up at her, her face the image of a lost and hurting sparkling, at least the way Jazz would have described it. She finally started to let out a little of what was bottled up inside her, though still kept down to quiet hands shook as they meekly covered her mouth.

" We met like y-you and Lacey did...only after e-everyone else I-I think..." She finally shook out. " A-and eventually w-we traded IM chat infor-I'm not even sure you know what that is-Sorry I'm being confusing-"

"Don't worry about it, just keep talkin'. " Jazz pushed when it looked like she was about to go mute again.

" -Basically we started talking directly. I mean, not directly, we still typed and stuff a while before actually talking-Just, we would instantly be able to talk back and forth instead of posting comments through the art website thing which everyone could see. " Said through cracked babbling, her voice sounding weak as she watched Jazz motion for her to keep going. " ...Out of all of us, w-we've known each other the shortest b-but..." she seemed to break off, not able to give enough volume to her voice ''-a-and h-honestly I don't talk much at all with th-the others and usually am on my own u-unless with you s-so I-I'm kinda lousy friends with everyone here and I-I'm not good at making friends or keeping them-"

She had to stop, voice breaking up too much and muffling a cry that would have been too loud for her liking.

Lyric's optics dinned, these were the foggiest of memories.

Mostly because they were emotional events, rather than physical ones.

But she was remembering the feelings anyway, and they were swirling with insecurity.

"I remember a sun." is all she said.

Windy's eyes seemed to spill even more tears, finally speaking some more, continuing at a point she hadn't even gotten to yet as though she hadn't stopped talking. " -Sometimes we'd get into fights, they'd be my fault and I know you hadn't had anything like that with the others at least not nearly as bad. It'd be over stupid things, I'd get mad over something stupid and then you'd be the one upset. It was always me that started it, and end up feeling like an ass over it and apologize, but it'd happen all over again a while later, it's gotten better but it's still always my fault cuz I'm such a brat. and I shouldn't be like that, and I shouldn't complain about stuff or get angry about it, I don't have the right to, not like you do but you're always the one having to take care of me and I'm so useless whenever you're the one that's hurting and needs cheering up-"

Suddenly Lyric's memories started changing to something darker, arguments, she remembered those, she remembered feeling upset and helpless. She remembered that it felt as if her sky had been clouded and she couldn't judge anymore because her emotions would get the better of herself.

Then came the discussions about her family, then a face... megatron's face. Then a ground bridge, the forest, shooting...animalistic roars, pain.

"Ey! Enough!" Jazz broke her out of her memory, shaking her harshly, she blinked, looking up confused, she felt something wet on her face and reached up to clean a line of energon dripping down from her noseplate. "W-what?"

"Ah think ya acessed too many memories in one go" Jazz said, helping her to clean it to a napkin.

"-you were my best friend, and the only one I felt understood me and how my head worked and it's imaginations, the one person I really connected with..." They heard Windy finish. " But I don't deserve it. I really don't...I don't...The others here are way better friends then I am. "

"Windy no. Thats enough, please." Jazz said, grabbing Lyric's shoulders to steady her, her memories going like a whirlwind.

"I..." Lyric stuttered, holding onto her noseplate. "I can't make it all out, its all mixed up"

"Stop it, you'll overclock your processor" Jazz ordered more seriously now.

Windy didn't say anything else, going back to trying not to let out any loud sounds, quietly letting sobs out and hiding her face again. She shook as the muted sounds wracked her form, hugging herself tightly and unable to bring herself to look at anyone anymore. She whimpered the others name garbled by her unstable voice, the name she knew her by, with a sorrowful tone.

Lacey pittied her, and reached over to hug her.

"I'm okay" Lyric said, trying to shoo away her coddling carrier.

"Thats enough o'that" Jazz insisted. "Y'all had a big day, Ah'd suggest ya go ta yer creators and get some rest. Ah'm takin' er ta do the same. Siren, tomorow same time, dun skip"

"But-"

"No buts" he said sternly, helping her to her pedes, she allowed it unsteadily.

"See you tomorrow..." Siren said in a small voice, the rest of them echoing it as the two left.

Jazz guided her out, holding her tightly against herself.  
>"Dun ever push yerself to that point again get it?"<br>"Yeah...okay..." she said in a small voice, fully using his support to walk back to their quarters.


	39. Movie Night

A few weeks passed, and as they did, Lyric began to remember more and more, slowly turning to a modified version of her former self. She started to sound older, and think like an older femme, which was a healthy sign.

She and Siren had survived thus far in Jazz's trainings, and with each week one of the other three girls got into her frame. They couldn't join them yet as they were getting used to their own frames, but their time was running out and they knew it.

Every so often they would have their lessons postponed and took the chance to play videogames in the recroom instead with whoever was interested or available.

Prowl would often have to send Jazz on missions for supplies with small teams, and although risky, most of the time they came back without a scratch.

In the middle of all of this, they had also finally gotten their things back from the previous base, which until then had been combed for any tracers, microphones or cameras, just to be safe.

As soon as Lyric got her old human bag back, she dug into it and investigated her old things with curiosity, trying to remember them in detail.

Some memories came back with time, completing each others, she had the strong suspicion her creators were trying to get her to remember only the good ones, so as to spare her from the bad experiences in her past life.

She remembered some, but she was just fine with the good ones and had no interest in gaining the others.

The routine set in like clockwork, and it wasn't until Jazz started giving her more private lessons that things got trickier.

They sat together on the floor of the living room, using a yoga mat each, facing each other, a cable making a connection between their helms.

"Jus' relax a lil'...yer makin' it worse than it has ta be." Jazz coaxed for the hundredth time.

"Its not that easy..." she complained. "everything's still very messed up in that area..."

"Its fine. Ya just gotta find yer way around the encryption."

"Why did you have to encrypt it anyway? It was just fine before..." she grumbled.

"Cuz' it was far too easy for the Decepticons ta find it an' use it on ya to their wishes. Ah seek ta make it harder for 'em ta do that, not that they'll have a chance at it." He scoffed. He and Prowl were not going to let Lyric turn herself in again like last time, if they could help it, she would never even get a meter's distance from a Decepticon from now on.

"well its definitely not easy anymore, I can't access my own program" she growled lowly, frustrated with their work. "I'll never be able to sorcell again at this rate!"

"Ya will, ya just need a lil' practice. Not that Ah want ya usin' it all the time."

"Right right... I know." she said, trying to focus again on her task.

Prowl watched their struggle from the dinning table, he'd finished his last reports for the day a while ago, and was now just appreciating the moment. Jazz had turned out to be just like he expected:

A strict teacher, but tactful and knowing in a way many would not be able to be. He knew how to make the separation between being a creator and being a teacher, and that was what they needed for her the most right now.

If they had wanted merely a physical and battle experience teacher, they could have gladly given Ironhide the job. But Lyric and the other femmes needed a lot of processor work as well, something Jazz was much more skilled at.

Meanwhile Prowl was taking most of his duties as a third in command, nothing he hadn't handled before. After all, he always took over when Jazz went on missions, and he'd certainly gone on missions for very long periods of time before.

No, all the management was going fine, what worried him however was Lyric's progress in her memory and the predicted date for their departure from earth.

Although she'd been recovering her memories fairly quick and well, he feared not enough would be recovered on time for the moment they would have to say goodbye to the wondrous planet she had grown in.

He was sure that, had she her full memories, she would have wanted to know what she was missing, she would want to remember it, and he did not wish to keep her from that right.

Of course Jazz had been of the opposite opinion, pointing out that it would diminish her sense of loss and sadness this way.

He had a point yes, but sometimes, one wanted to be sad, to grieve over what is lost, and Prowl knew this was simply one of those cases.

Groaning in frustration, Lyric threw her arms in the air, throwing herself back on the mat.

"I give! I can't get around it!" she whined.

Jazz was about to argue before Prowl interrupted.

"Perhaps a break is in order Jazz?" he suggested softly. "I do remember Lyric being invited for movie night later today?"

At this, the young femme perked up, sitting straight again with interest.

Jazz hummed, discontent, but unplugged his end of the cable "Fine. We'll continue tomorrow" He said, feeling unsatisfied with himself.

"Why don't you head along Lyric? I am certain you'll need some time to get ready" Prowl suggested easily as Jazz began to roll up the mats.

"Yes!Thanks dad!"The femme said all too hastily, rushing off to the private washrack.

Prowl chuckled lightly, before turning to his mate.

"You are being too eager." He noted " She will work it out in time."

Jazz sighed, putting away the mats in their appropriate place.

"Ah know...Ah jus'...Ah kinda want ta see 'er with the frame we chose for 'er again."

"The little sparkling façade is growing tiresome on you?" Prowl suggested with amusement.

"Somethin' like tha'." he noded closing the closet "Ah mean, dun' get me wrong, Ah love ta have a lil' one around. But that's not her, not the real her Ah mean, we both know it, she knows it. It feels fake."

"Its a phase, all will be fine within time." Prowl said, motioning for him to join him. "She has already progressed a lot, have you noticed? She began to call me dad instead of daddy, and you pops, instead of papa."

"Yeah...that bit ah admit ah'm sad ta lose" The saboteur said, sagging in defeat, heading over to his mate, and rather than taking a chair for his own, sitting on his partner's lap.

"Mhmm.." Prowl hummed thoughtfully.

"Somethin' on yer mind?" Jazz asked knowingly, making himself comfortable and petting his mate's helmet.

"Optimus and I have finally come to an agreement on the date for the launch."

"Already?" Jazz asked,a little surprised.

"Yes, we've been very lucky thus far in evading detection while stealing supplies." Prowl nodded, wrapping his arms around the other.

They listened for a moment in silence, the only sound being the shower from the washrack.

"An' our destination?" Jazz asked wearily.

"We've set a course that will allow us to gather some resources along the way..."

"...but no definite destination" Jazz summed up.

"No...we are hopeful however, we will be heading towards the milky way, there are many planets there, the probabilities of finding somewhere to settle for a while are good, our chances are better than the ones we had when we found earth."

"Ah suppose that's kinda okay" Jazz agreed. Heck if his mate agreed to it, then he would back him up completely, no one better than Prowl to make a decision like this.

"we will begin straight away with rations and power savings, to prolong our chances as best as we can." Prowl spoke his thoughts in his usual pragmatic way.

"Hn... that's gonna suck for the girls" Jazz said with a sigh.

"I have been investigating alternative ways to keep them entertained in the mean time" Prowl said with a slight nod.

Jazz snorted "You? Entertain?"

Prowl gave him a stern look, one that knew very well where this was going.

"Yes Jazz, I do know how to entertain."

"Oh I know ya do, jus' that yer ways are very few an' limited, an most certainly not appropriate fer young femmes" he grinned, earning himself a slap on the back of the helm.

"You have no remedy"

* * *

><p>It was late into the night when Lyric started nodding off, a tank full of goodies and warm energon, and a processor full of movie images they had just watched.<p>

They had gotten through a few Disney classics, like the little mermaid, the lion king, then moved off to Jurassic park and she could barely keep her optics online by now.

Don't get her wrong, she loved that movie, it felt like it was a part of her childhood, but it was very late by now and the warm fuzzy feeling of the thermal blanket wrapped around her really wasn't helping her battle.

Next to her were the other femmes, Silverclaw and Fusion had gotten their frames at last, and the only one left was Windy.

They were told that her frame would be ready by the end of the week, and she couldn't wait.

It had been hard, on her. On them all really, but the four femmes had been working hard to reacquaint Lyric back into their group, and in cheering up the depressed little human over her feelings of remorse.

Currently, said little human was lounging on her lap, taking a part of the blanket to wrap herself as well, she seemed to be asleep already however, as seemed to be the usual.

To her left rested Fusion, head resting on her shoulder, her optics and visor band were still lit, but dim and it seemed she was barely aware of what she was watching anymore. Then on her right was Silverclaw and Siren, animatedly chatting, they didn't seem to be any closer to sleep, which was a bit of a habit.

Silverclaw had been... a curious choice of appearances. Her arguments with her creator over her frame had been classified as monumental by everyone, and it just amused them all that she ended up being the second smallest femme, of lilac colors, a stark contrast to Ironhide's own looks.

He of course tried time and time again to persuade her to upgrade to a stronger and sturdier frame, but she would have none of it, and there was already talk about her wanting to fly, which had Ironhide fuming around the base every once in a while freezing anyone who passed by him with a deathly glare.

Fusion however had been no exception to the added arguments to the ark. It seemed she had secretly fiddled with the schematics for her frame WHILE Wheeljack was building it, somehow successfully managing to get her frame her own way, which looked a fair amount more like Wheeljack's than Ratchet's, which of course, set the medic off on his mate who just couldn't for the spark of him understand how it had happened.

Well at least she had kept the medic's colors, that seemed to have settled him a little bit, but he would still grumble regularly about it, and there were rumors that Wheeljack was still sleeping in his lab.

Windy unlike those two, had completely left her appearance be her creator's choice, not really caring about participating in her change. It was no secret that she wasn't looking forward to it, but at least she had been just silently moping about it, rather than dissing everyone off. The fact that her human family was around was probably helping with that, she knew that they had been trying to talk to her about it and try to get her used to the idea. Though in her opinion it only served to make the girl more frustrated and mopey.

Smiling down at her, she took in the sleeping girl's appearance, much more at rest now that she was unaware, her face settled in a neutral if a bit peaceful expression.

Gently she ran a finger over the girl's hair, caressing it fondly before returning her attention back to the movie at hand.

It was when at last Dr. grant and the kids got back to the main building of the park and met with his colleague that she was woken up a bit more by the sound of the door opening, she turned her head a little to see Ratchet come in, looking around the dark room for the group.  
>He approached quietly to the couch and checked on Fusion before moving to pick up the sleeping femme.<p>

He looked at the others with a tired but still there scowl.

"You lot should turn in for the night as well. Your creators should be waiting." he advised, before heading off "good night"

They chorused a reply to him and looked at each others with tired smiles.

"Welp, I guess he does have a point." Silverclaw said, stretching in her sitting position. "Ironhide's going to kill me for staying up so late"

"Not that you really care" Lyric scoffed, already knowing the other's customs. It was surprising how little time it had taken her to get to know her friends, her memories were taking longer to come, but befriending them couldn't possibly have been easier. Which was still a strange experience, but a pleasant one none the less.

"Got that right" the femme said, puffing her cheeks and wiggling her pedes. "But if I don't go he'll

probably make practice twice as bad tomorrow" she whined.

"Bad luck" Siren said with a smirk "My creators have no problems with me staying up as late as I do."

"That's just because one of them is a paranoid workaholic, and the other's too busy trying to get HIM to sleep." Lyric pointed out.

"Eeeexactly. And I love it that way" she said with a huge grin on her face.

"None the less, it IS late, and we DO need to recharge" she grabbed the remote and shut off the system, receiving a whine from the two.

"But it was just getting to the good part!"

"We've all seen this movie a hundred times, I'm sure your processor can avidly remember the details while you sleep" She said with a roll of her optics, carefully getting up with Windy in her hands. "I'll be taking windy to her quarters, I'll see you guys tomorrow?"

"Sure" Siren said.

"Yeah, if Ironhide doesn't beat us with training to death" Silverclaw agreed.

Nodding in agreement, she turned, making sure to keep the blanket wrapped around her while holding the little human safely, she made her way out.

The humans were staying in a spare room for one of the lesser warriors, which was essentially a very small space for a bot, but big enough for a human family.

She walked through the silent halls, the only sound being of her pedesteps, which on instinct she tried to make as quiet as possible.

Since it was the night shift, (or known by many as the graveyard shift), the lights were generally on dim to save power, no one would be found in these halls, which just served to make them eery and menacing. Even with the bright orange walls, the darkness managed to make it old and scary.

She kept on walking however, her spark beating faster inside while on the outside she kept her composure. Somehow she knew she was like this, as frightening as it was to walk around these halls this late, she had to keep a level head, and just keep telling herself that the noises she heard were probably either mice or the groaning metal of the old ship, or maybe even a ceiling rock falling on the ship's exterior. There was simply, nothing to fear.

Except very creepy long empty hallways with just the perfect atmosphere and silence. Nothing harmful but still scary.

Finally, after what felt like far too many halls and floors, she reached her destination, and lightly knocked on the door.

On the other side some grumbling could be heard, as well as some shuffling. She waited patiently, wondering if they could even reach the door controls for a moment before the door finally opened.

Ah, that's how.

Next to the control panel on the other side had been shoved a berthside table, which was conveniently next to a large berth. The little human male that was Windy's surrogate father was standing there.

"About time! Its very late young miss! You should all have gone to bed a long time ago!" He scolded with an oddly soft fatherly tone.

"Sorry, we lost track of time, she fell asleep hours ago though, so she shouldn't have lost any bit of extra sleep" she said, smiling down at the small form, gently handing over to the father, who could barely hold his child.

"Next time be more conscious of the time!" He said with a huff.

"We will, sorry again. Good night" she said, before closing the door for him.

Once again finding herself alone in the halls, she started to make her way back up a few floors, where the higher up quarters were located.

On her way up from the lesser quarters and to a higher rank of soldiers she heard a door open.

Not really thinking about it, she froze at the ramp going up to that floor and listened, Spark accelerating once more.

"Coast is clear" a voice whispered.

"Urgh" someone struggled with something that sounded distinctively heavy from the sounds it made when it hit the frame of a door. "Why do WE have to do this scrap? And why at THIS hour? Doesn't Jazz know this is OUR recharging hours?"

"You know why!This is meant to be TOP secret, and you know how top secret that mech likes things!"

"Its just a p-"

"SHHH!These walls have audios!" The first said, and Lyric could mentally imagine him looking around in paranoia while the other rolled his optics.

"Seriously Sides, you're less nervous about things like these when its YOUR pranks."

"This is different!" Sideswipe argued "This is directly from Jazz of all mechs, you try and upset him by failing your given mission."

"Its not a mission..."

"I prefer to think of it as one."

"Anyway, lets just get this to the room and be done with it. I want to get back to recharge as soon as possible I need my beauty sleep"

"Sure sure sleeping beauty, just be careful with the merchandise!"

"The merchendise?! What about my beautiful paintjob huh? Did you think about that? And one more thing..."

Slowly their voices started to drift away, and Lyric dared to step the rest of the way up to that floor, looking around cautiously.

"I wonder what those two were up to?" she thought to herself, before quickly making the rest of the way to the last floor.


	40. Live Ammo

Today was definitely not the best day of their lives in the ark, Lyric decided as she ducked behind a piece of rubble to avoiding a wheezing missile, just barely avoiding it as it flew past, blasting against a ruined wall, spreading rubble and smoke everywhere.

"FOCUS! YER GOIN' TA GIT SCRAPPED IF YEH KEEP THAT UP!" Ironhide's booming voice warned from somewhere ahead of the field.

Nope, this was definitely not her idea of fun, she didn't even know where the rest of the femmes were at! She was sure she heard someone be defeated at one point, but had been too preoccupied ducking for cover to notice who it had been.

She began to understand why everyone grew nervous around the large mech's rage lately, and why prowl's stacks of datapads on their concern had at least tripled more than the usual.

He was a living menace! A bomb just waiting to explode! This was supposed to be a mere evasion exercise, but noooo, the mech had to insist in being the enemy of the exercise and using LIVE AMMO for it! Live ammo!

Who in their right mind used live ammo on an exercise!?

Another missile zoomed somewhere close by, someone's shout of distress muffled by its resounding BOOM!

Ironhide that was who. Why did Prowl even THINK it wise to pass training onto the gruff mech when Jazz was away? WHY?!

Mentally she growled, he probably thought it would decrease his attempts to terrify the entire Ark whenever they snickered at this misery.

Well it did. But in return, the four of them were suffering for it. Oh how Windy was lucky...

Taking her chance with the sudden smoke cover from that missile, she darted out from behind the rocks, and towards a more or less stable ruin that would serve better cover.

She had to jump and skid into hiding before the smoke would be clear enough for the mad mech to see her.

"Good to see you made it"

Silverclaw's voice startled her so much she was sure she nearly sorcelled into a new figure.

"You're still alive!"

The other gave a weak little nervous laugh " yep, still alive."

"Your dad is mental" Lyric growled between denta as low as she felt safe, peeking from one of the bullet holes in the wall behind her. "Scrap... I think he got Siren...she's...she's dragging herself out of the field."

"Great...any sign of Fusion?"

"Not that I can see, must have found a good spot to hide."

"Lucky fragger" Silverclaw growled.

"We should try and do the same, if we stick together we got a better chance of survival" Lyric rattled off automatically. "If he spots us, we can always separate and he won't be able to pick who to shoot."

The other nodded in agreement "Of course. we might last a few seconds longer this way."

Lyric examined the field thoughtfully, thinking over Ironhide's strategy so far.

"He's not searching in the higher areas, but that is a bigger risk to go to because he's missiles are mostly being shot that high. I suppose he doesn't REALLY want to hit us...just scare us out of our hiding spots."

"Where to then?" Silverclaw asked nervously, peeking through her own bullet hole.

"Hmmm... I'm thinking... I hate these games of hide and go seek, I love the thrill sure but this isn't a very fair game."

"You mean hide and go die" The other corrected.

"Hmmm..."a thought occurred to her then. "that's it!" she had to contain herself from shouting "dying!"

The other turned to her, one optic slightly larger than the other and its optic ridge high up "Dying?!"

"Well not dying dying! But think about it, if you were out in the field, and you needed to get past unnoticed...I mean... he's not going to look at dead bodies"

"Except two femmes are VERY identifiable dead bodies" the other countered.

"True, but put it in the middle of the others..."

"I dunno about this... I know Ironhide can be quite ahh...thick-helmed...but-"

"It'll be fine. He'll never look for us there. There's a pit of body parts over to the other end of the field, we can hide inside it."

"Well..." Silverclaw said hesitantly" I guess its die now or die later..."

"Don't worry, its all holographic after all, they're not real bodies" lyric said, reading into her friend's nervousness. "Come on, lets try to find a back way out" she said, slowly and silently moving away from the wall.

They crept through the shadows in a deliberately slow pace, so as to make sure they did not make any kind of noise with the rubble. Too many times had they seen movies where the character stepped on a twig when trying to be sneaky, and they were all too aware of Silverclaw's unfortunate tendency to be clumsy and trip on her pedes.

On the plus side, Ironhide was so loud, it was kind of pointless to be quiet most of the time, it was either his bellowing or his shooting, and Lyric had to wonder for a few moments as they snuck by if he was doing that on purpose or just out of habbit. He was a front liner after all, he fought where all the noise was made, subtlety was certainly not his forte.

As they left the ruins, finding cover began to be more and more difficult, and it ended up being more of a game of waiting than anything else.

They had to be patient, holding on in their hide outs until Ironhide would look away or get distracted.

The wreckege where the bodies were at was coming into their sights, they were nearly there, they could start feeling the anxiety and nerves breaking them down though, and Silverclaw was the first to break, moving out of her hiding spot one second too soon.  
>Ironihde spotted her from the corner of his optic, a battered and knowing smile splitting his worn face.<p>

"An' one more to go" he announced loudly, his booming voice almost making their frames vibrate with resonance.

"Aw scrap!" Lacey said, making a mad run for the next hiding spot, she barely made it to Lyric's, throwing herself at the last minute and landing roughly against the other as a shot hit the spot where she had just been at.

A klik later Silverclaw was peeking out from behind the rock waving her fist and shouting.

"THAT COULD HAVE FRIED ME YOU STUPID FACE!"

Lyric had to pull her back into hiding before a another shot nearly hit her.

"Plan's not gonna work now with him looking at us!"she hissed, the rock behind them showering bits and pieces as it was shot at.

"Well what do we DO then?!" Silverclaw said in half panic.

"I don't know! We're stuck! If we make a run for it he'll catch us...but if we wait he'll still catch us!"

"So we're doomed either way."

"Yeah-well...no. There's one other thing we can try... its stupid but.."

"I like stupid, lets take it."

"We're going to have to go to him instead, and fight him off so we can escape."

"I take it back, I don't like stupid."

"Its the only way, think about it, if it were real, what would you do? We're dead either way if we stay here, might as well try and face him for the odd chance that we might escape right?"

"This is gonna hurt..." Silverclaw complained.

"Okay, his weapon has a five klik cooldown, when I tell you, get ready to go for him, go for hip joints and abdominal plating. His legs are too thick and heavy for either of us to make any damage, and you don't want to face his arms in any direction." she rattled off.

"Right, kick him in the balls." Silverclaw summarized.

Ironhide waited on the other side, almost on automatic, there wasn't really that much of a challenge in this for him. But it was a mighty one for the femmes. So far, Fusion had gone down first, then Siren, and now, only Silver claw and Lyric were left.

He honestly had not expected Silverclaw to have lasted this long, clumsy as she was.

Lyric was not that much of a surprise to him however, after all, she was a combination Jazz and Prowl together, two mechs that as a duo were frightening enough as it was, and she was living up to their reputation in good time. But there were still other things he needed to test her with, sure having their skills and their CNA, but both mechs could have been very troublesome had they ended up in the other faction or even on their own but with the wrong set of morals.

It had been a bit like that at the beginning, Jazz had been like a ticking bomb, and Prowl... well Prowl had formed a barrier for himself when Praxus fell, not wanting to get close t anyone, it made him less caring for a while when he was sending mechs out into the field, Ironhide had seen that first hand.

Things settled themselves however when both mechs started confronting each other more and actually began their relationship.

So now, it was Lyric's and Silver Claw's turn, what would they do? They had three options: surrendering and risking death, death, or fight back.

Each option would tell him a lot about them, how they would act in the field, where they should go and what the autobots should do about them and how to take care of them.

Surrendering was a half smart move, it only worked if you had something the opposing party wanted, they didn't have that, so that was a bust and it meant stupidity.

If they just waited it out then they were conformists, bots who wouldn't fight for their lives till the bitter end, those never lasted long in the war.

He blinked as his weapons began their cool down, and he saw the two frames shooting out from their hiding spot.

Ah, fighting back it was then huh? They were survivalists then.

He let them come near enough, Lyric reaching him first and going straight for his left knee joint.

He easily thwarted her though, smacking her side with his bulky arm and throwing her a few feet away.

Then came Silver Claw, who he bitterly noted went straight for his crotch plating, she instead got kneed in the abdominal plating and fell back to the floor.

"Game over girls" He announced, his weapons pointed at the two fallen and groaning femmes.

* * *

><p>Prowl was in the midst of his reports, his desk still pretty much covered from today's work, it was still early in the day after all, and he had time.<p>

He was certain he would finish it by half the day, then he had a lot more to do, checking in on all of the divisions, doing a body count, checking and triple checking if they had all the supplies needed...perhaps take one last stroll outside with his mate and creation... it would be their last time on earth after all, the next day they would be departing.

His thoughts were interrupted when the door opened, the bot who did so not bothering to knock, not that he minded Lyric's intrusion, but it wasn't like her to be rude like that.

Then he looked up and understood why, she had a beaten up look, covered in dirt and dust, some singes from laser fire were obvious on her frame and there was a good sizable dent on her left shoulder.

All in all, no fatal injuries, but a very pained appearance in general.

"I take it training was...difficult?" He said as she dragged her pedes to the visitor's couch and all but collapsed into it.

"He's crazy" she complained "Why did you put him in charge of training?WHY?!" she cried out pathetically, reminding him of Jazz's occasional melodramas.

"Ironhide is a perfectly good trainer, with experience and dedication." he answered.

"Yeah but WHY him?! He nearly killed us for slag's sake!" she complained, rolling onto her back and gesturing with her arms widely. Good, that meant that dent wasn't too serious.

"You are exaggerating, Ironhide may be difficult, but he would never put you girls in harms way."

"He uses LIVE AMMO!"

"He- wait repeat that please?"

"Yes, he uses live ammo" she repeated drily, taking in his bewildered expression.

"He was not allowed to do that" He said blankly"

"Well whoopy dee, he does anyway. And I have the burn marks to prove it!" she said, pointing at a particularly singed piece of metal on her hand.

"I will have a talk with him, rest assured it will not happen again" he said a bit more concerned now, writing down a note about said meeting.  
>He then shut down the datapad he had been working on and put it aside, he should take a break anyway... and this was a good excuse.<br>"Let me see those burns" he said, getting up and joining her on the couch.

She unceremoniously gave him her hand to examine, all the while looking away.

"I don't think he meant to actually shoot us or anything, he was just scaring us off. But there's always collateral damage and primus is it dangerous.

"You are quite sure those were not stun guns?" He asked, even though, from examining her hand he could already tell the answer.

"Pretty damn sure." she growled. "Though he did use those too, Fusion got stunned apparently, she couldn't walk very well, Siren helped her off to the medbay." she informed him.

"I see..." he commented, opening his subspace and taking out a salve just for these types of superficial wounds, and a rag, getting it wet and beginning to apply it on her hand. She hissed as it stung slightly.

"I do hope that Jazz has not done the same."

"Not in that way anyway...yet." She drawled.

"Sooner or later you will have to have training with real weaponry yes, but not right now, you are far too much in the beginning. The risks are far too high that something wrong might happen." He said, gently cleaning away all the dark soot from her armor.

He stopped for a minute, evaluating how well the salve was working.

"Hmmm... perhaps a wash would work better, and a repaint? You can't be going around in those scratches."

She whined lazily "Do I HAVE to? Painting takes forever."  
>"I'll help you with it if you allow me." he said, gently giving her a push to make her get off the couch.<p>

"Kay..." she conceded, allowing him to lead her out of the office and back to their quarters.  
>He was talking to someone, she could tell from the tiny hints in his body language, others wouldn't see it, but she supposed she was just so much time around her Sire that now she instinctively knew.<br>"I'll go on ahead and wash this off" she said, heading for the private washracks.

"Of course, call me once you are done. I will be waiting here."

She did so, nodding before going inside and locking the door behind her.  
>This was going to be fun... she still had to get the hang of properly washing herself, what with the extra pair of appendages on her back.<p>

It seemed her creators had taken into consideration that at the time one of them had this problem as well, so they had invested on their washrack to have some tools which helped the process. It was still a pain in the aft though if you asked her.

Quickly doing the best she could, she eventually went under the dryer and called her Sire in.

Once done, Prowl joined her inside, preparing the paints with a practiced ease that she wished she had, but it was something gained only from experience.

Once he had everything set: all the colors in little containers, all distributed evenly and in order, not a single inch out of pace. Prowl made her sit on a stool, and to hold as still as possible while he began the tedious work.

"Are you sure this is all right? Don't you have lots of work? You know, like usual?" She asked after a few minutes of sitting still, almost unable to take the silence.  
>"It is fine." He assured, focused on his task, his brush making the lightest touches on her doorwings, covering the metallic silver in black.<p>

"But... you always have tons of work at this hour..." she countered, looking over her shoulder slightly. Prowl was as unreadable as ever. "And wheres Pops anyway? He's usually the one to pick me up at this hour, but lately he hasn't."

"There has been a lot to do in the Ark, and as a result of our future departure, our schedules are very uncertain and unbalanced." He said, almost prepared for the conversation at hand.

"If you say so..."she said, falling again into silence.

Prowl kept on, and if she didn't think it was her impatience, she could have sworn that he was taking even longer than he usually did.

Not that either of her creators was ever quick when repainting or polishing, but Prowl was the worst of the two, taking far longer to do things because he could take nothing but utter perfection.

"There, that should be good." He announced at last, making his daughter roll her optics in secret.

'good?' she mentally wondered.

"We should be going now."

"What? Where? To your office?"

"No, there is somewhere else I must be at."

"Oh... okay... I can just stay in the quarters if you want, I'll watch some tv or something."

"No, it is fine. You may come along. I may actually need your assistance this time."

Assistance? Since WHEN did Prowl ask for assistance? Actually, since when did he admit the need for help? He was proud of being more than capable to do his work and pull his own weight.

"Okay..." she said slowly, eying him critically. Prowl wasn't even looking at her anymore, in fact, he was putting away the paints -rather quickly she might add – and making sure everything was clean and perfect.

"So... what are we going to do? More paper work? Getting paper work? Giving paper work?" she guessed, shrugging it off.

"Actually, we will be checking on the repairs outside of the ship" He responded, again with that all readiness.

"Oh. Okay, I guess that's nice, I get to see the outside again" She said, feeling a little more cheerful with that prospect.

With that being said, they left their quarters, Prowl taking an obvious lead, and Lyric following just a few steps behind so as to not bump against his larger doorwings.

It was in times like these that she took her time to study them and try to find any semblance of emotive expression, they were supposed to tell a lot, like on uncles Bluestreak and Smokescreen. But her Sire...well...they might as well have been made of cardboard. They weren't like limbs at all, they were always stiff and high, inexpressive, unforgiving in a way to himself, not allowing him the release of everything he pent up and only let out in the privacy of their quarters.

Soon enough voices could be heard, the voices of her friends. That was strange, they had gone to the medbay, Ratchet was on Youngling duty since everyone else was busy.

Sure enough, there they were, at the entrance of the ark, the door to the outside still closed, Ratchet was standing there with them, looking as if he might just expire from all the pertinent questions the young femmes were throwing at him, it appeared as if they had been teasing him, probably trying to fill up boring time.

"Finally! You couldn't have walked any slower!" Ratchet complained.

"My apologies Ratchet. The way from the quarters to here is longer than that of the medbay's."

"Yeah yeah, put a sock in it and let's get this going." The medic cut him off.

"Very well, and please do mind your manners around the girls Ratchet" He conceded.

"Manners? WHAT manners?! These girls know nothing of the sort! Starting by respecting their elders!" he growled, glaring at the ones who had been previously torturing his patience.

At this, Fusion threw herself at his feet, hugging him around the knees and giving him the most shiny optics behind her optic band.

"But dadddyyyy, we love you!"

"The slagging pit you do, you just don't want a wrench to the head again, even though you're just making it worse on yourself" he said with his noseplate high. Ratchet was not exactly the type of mech you could charm your way out of trouble, but Fusion was likely the only one who could manage it.

In either case, Prowl ignored them and proceeded to the control panel, taking out a security card and swipping it in the slot, it then requested his hand print.

"So what are we doing here anyway? I thought lessons were over" Siren asked.

"They are. You are here for something else" Prowl responded, the machine beeping in recognition.

"Wait, I thought you said we were going to check the repairs?" Lyric questioned.

The door then began to slide open, and the five femmes turned to the outside, and stood stock still, optics wide and jaws hanging open.


End file.
